The Competition Commission of India, the Indian antitrust regulator, comes to open an investigation against Google, following complaints filed by press editors. They claim that the American giant is abusing its dominant position with its search engine, Google Search.
Indian media complain about Google Search dominance
A few days after the opening of an investigation into Apple’s commercial practices, the Competition Commission of India therefore decided to take an interest in Google Search. The American giants are clearly in the sights of the Indian authorities. As part of the open investigation on Google, India is seeking to understand to what extent the Mountain View company is abusing its dominant position to impose conditions, presumably unfair, on the country’s media.
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In a 21-page ordinance, the regulator states that “The allegations make it appear, at first glance, that news publishers have no choice but to accept the conditions imposed by Google”. Indian media is stuck. Despite this, they don’t want to stop posting their articles on Google because they know that they would lose a large part of their readers.
Towards an evolution of the rules, as in France and Australia?
This is why they are asking for the intervention of the Competition Commission of India, in order to change the rules, as in France and Australia. In France, Google seems to have watered its wine on the issue of neighboring rights. The American giant has made several commitments to the Competition Authority to ensure a “good faith” negotiation with publishers and news agencies.
The opening of this investigation follows a complaint from the Digital News Publishers Association, which brings together the largest Indian media. The association said that in 2022, the media realize more than half of their traffic from search engines online, a sector largely dominated by Google Search. According to the association, this dominant position in the market has allowed Google to force publishers to accept several conditions that are unfavorable to them.
The media would like to have greater negotiating power to publicize their demands. Google has not yet wished to respond to these accusations. The Indian regulator adds that “In a well-functioning democracy, the essential role played by the media cannot be questioned”. The Competition Commission of India will therefore put in place measures, to ensure that Google no longer abuses its dominant position with its search engine.