EU launches antitrust probe into how Google's anti-spam policy affects publishers' search rankings | TechCrunch

"The Commission said on Thursday that it had found signs that Google is using the policy to push news media and other publishers' websites and content lower in search rankings when they include content from their business partners, and that the policy "appears to directly impact a common and legitimate way for publishers to monetise their websites and content." The EC is now investigating if Google's policy impacts publishers' "freedom to conduct legitimate business, innovate, and cooperate with third-party content providers.""

""Unfortunately, the investigation announced today into our anti-spam efforts is misguided and risks harming millions of European users," "And the investigation is without merit: a German court has already dismissed a similar claim, ruling that our anti-spam policy was valid, reasonable, and applied consistently." "Google's anti-spam policy is essential to how we fight deceptive pay-for-play tactics that degrade our results," "Our anti-spam policy helps level the playing field, so that websites using deceptive tactics don't outrank websites competing on the merits with their own content.""

The European Commission has opened an investigation into how Google applies its site reputation abuse policy after finding signs the policy may push news media and other publishers lower in search rankings when they include content from business partners. The Commission says the policy appears to directly affect publishers' monetisation models and could restrict their freedom to conduct legitimate business, innovate, and cooperate with third-party providers. Google says the measures target sites republishing others' content to manipulate rankings and defends the policy as necessary to combat deceptive pay-for-play tactics. Potential penalties under the Digital Markets Act include fines up to 10% of Alphabet's global turnover and possible remedies such as forced divestiture.

Read at TechCrunch