Google has released the results of an experiment in which news was removed from search results for 1% of users for 2.5 months in eight European markets, claiming the results prove that news is essentially worthless to Google’s advertising business1. The search firm conducted the test because European copyright law requires it to pay news publishers for republishing snippets of their content1. Google argues that publishers ‘overestimate grossly’ the value of their journalism to its company; in its report on the tests, the actual value ‘could not be statistically distinguished from zero, either globally or by country’1.
Google is expecting to use this finding in payment deals with European publishers1. The technology company, however, is walking a thin line as it has already suffered heavy antitrust penalties in France in the last few years on news content1. Specifically, it was punished more than half a billion dollars for the way it treated copyright negotiations with publishers1.
Germany’s antitrust authority has subjected parts of Google’s behavior concerning news to increased scrutiny and has forced the business to change1. Moves by Google to try to counterbalance the effect of the EU copyright law by saying that news has no value would place it into more regulatory peril1. The company had initially covered French users in the news ablation experiments but removed this aspect of the experiment after a French court threatened to penalize it for breaking an earlier promise to the antitrust authority1. Google did not have the test run in Germany1.
Google has introduced a “small, time-limited test” in eight countries to observe how removing European Union-based news publishers from a user’s search results impacts them2. The “AB testing” is being conducted in Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, and Spain2. Google indicates that one percent of users in those countries will not see EU-based news publishers in Google News, Search, and Discover for an unspecified amount of time2. The remaining 99 percent will see no change in their search results pertaining to news publishers2. The test was even scheduled to be conducted in France, but was stopped by a court ruling following a plea by the French Union of Magazine Press Editors (SEPM)2. As per the union, it conflicted with Google’s assurance to France’s competition regulator not to impact the index, ranking, or visibility of content that is protected2.
Google has been running a scheme called Extended News Previsions (ENP) in Europe since the last few years3. It is an EU news publishers’ licence scheme and comes under their move to meet Article 15 of the European Copyright Directive (EUCD)3. Google has licensing arrangements with more than 4000 publications across 20 EU member states3. They are the first company to have implemented a programme that is aimed at EUCD compliance, which will benefit publishers of all sizes3.
Google has begun a new test of its search-results format in the European Union, as part of an effort to meet the bloc’s digital antitrust regulations4. This experiment allows users to opt for price comparison website results or alternatives that direct them to supplier websites while searching for goods like products, restaurants, flights, or hotels4. In line with the Digital Markets Act, an EU regulation that prohibits Google from providing preferred placement to its own products like Google Shopping and Google Hotels over rival services on its very popular search engine results, the company is being fined as much as 10% of its global annual revenue for non-compliance, extendable to 20% for repeat offenses4.
On Wednesday, Google won a court battle over a 1.49 billion euro antitrust penalty that the European Union had imposed on it five years ago for its online advertising business5. The General Court of the European Union said it was annulling the 2019 penalty that the European Commission had imposed5.
