Google Faces Italian Antitrust Probe Over News Search
Google Inc., owner of the most popular Internet search engine, is being investigated by Italian antitrust regulators after the country’s newspapers said the company’s news service deprives them of advertising revenue.
Google’s Italian offices were searched by financial police today, the regulator said. The probe focuses on claims Google didn’t feature search results of newspapers that don’t make content available on Google News, the Rome-based competition authority said in a statement.
“Publishers are a bit frustrated with Google, not only on a copyright infringement point of view, but also because of dominance of news and advertising markets,” Sophie Scrive, deputy executive director of the Brussels-based European Newspaper Publishing Association, said by telephone.