Competition Commission of India orders another probe against Google

Google is being investigated once again by the Competition Commission for what it says are discriminatory revenue sharing arrangements related to news content. According to the Competition Commission of India, this case would be consolidated with two others already pending against the search engine giant (CCI).

Also, READ: Mumbai: Motivated by 'Money Heist', ICICI bank manager steals Rs 34 crore; arrested

The new decision stems from a complaint lodged by the News Broadcasters & Digital Association.

The Digital News Publishers Association filed a complaint with CCI in January, prompting an investigation into Google. The Indian Newspaper Society followed suit not long after, and the two cases were merged.

In an order published on Friday, the watchdog said that the regulator's investigative arm, Director General (DG), will now submit a combined investigation report.

The News Broadcasters & Digital Association claimed that its members were coerced into giving Google access to their news material in exchange for higher rankings for their links in Google's SERP. According to the lawsuit, Google uses the members' material without providing them with fair remuneration.

It was claimed, among other things, that Google took advantage of the members' reliance on the Google search engine to generate referral traffic for other Google products including Google News, Google Discover, and Google Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP).

The news information is provided by the search engine giant via Google Search and the news aggregator vertical, Google News.

The lawsuit states that Google Search offers users the option of doing a targeted news search through the dedicated News Tab, or alternatively, of receiving news via the results shown in the search engine's natural language processing (SLR)-based SERPs. Google has started using news articles as highlighted snippets, and it even has a carousel of "Top Stories" at the top of the search engine results page.

While the group acknowledged that its members contributed significantly to these platforms, it noted that the income provided by Google to news publishers did not adequately recompense them for their efforts.

CCI said in a four-page ruling dated October 6 and made public on Friday that the claims are similar to the case currently under investigation.

The CCI has asked the DG to combine the investigations into one report.

When CCI discovers what it believes to be prima facie evidence of a breach of competition standards, it sends the case to its investigative arm, DG, for further examination.

A formal complaint has been lodged against Alphabet Inc., Google LLC, Google India Pvt. Ltd., Google Ireland Ltd., and Google Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd.

Association members include private national and regional news and current affairs broadcasters, as well as internet news media outlets.

(With inputs from PTI)