Google vs Publishers: CCI orders probe following INS complaint

The INS has alleged that Alphabet Inc is allegedly abusing its dominant position related to news referral services and Google Ad Tech services, violating Section 4 of the Competition Act, 2002

by exchange4media Staff
Published: Mar 26, 2022 8:52 AM | 2 min read

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has ordered a probe against Google for allegedly abusing its dominant position in the online news market following a complaint by the Indian Newspapers Society (INS). The CCI has passed an order to club the information submitted by the INS with the submissions made by the Digital News Publishers Association (DNPA) on similar contentions.

In January, the CCI had ordered an inquiry against Google for alleged abuse of dominant position in the digital advertising market on a complaint filed by the DNPA. The association has Dainik Bhaskar, India Today, NDTV, Hindustan Times, The Indian Express, The Times of India, Amar Ujala, Jagran New Media, Eenadu and Malayalam Manorama as its members.

“The CCI after examining the contentions of INS, the representative organisation of newspapers in the country, found that prima facie these allegations of abuse of dominant position are under the purview of the Competition Act 2002 and that it requires a detailed investigation by the director-general,” the INS said in a statement.

“The INS has been working towards obtaining proper compensation for content…for its members and other news publishers…from Google. The INS looks forward to the implementation of a just payment system at the earliest,” it said.

In the statement, the INS alleged that Alphabet Inc, Google LLC, Google India Private Limited, Google Ireland Limited, and Google Asia Pacific Pte Ltd are allegedly abusing their dominant position related to news referral services and Google Ad Tech services in the Indian online news media market, which violates Section 4 of the Competition Act, 2002.

It also maintained that the producers/publishers of news that are made available in digital format are not being paid a fair value for their content despite them having invested heavily in creating appropriate content for the customers, who search for news items using the Google platform.

The INS also noted that the news media houses are completely kept in the dark on the total advertising revenue collected by Google and what actual percentage of the advertising revenue is being transferred to media organisations.

The apex body of newspaper publishers said several countries, including Australia, France, and Spain, have passed legislation requiring tech companies, including Google, to adequately compensate content producers for using their content and search results.

It added that the European Publishers Council had also filed a competition complaint against Google alleging that Google has achieved an end-to-end control of the ad-tech value chain, thus abusing its dominant position.