What is the issue?
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has ordered a probe against Google for alleged unfair revenue sharing terms with regard to news content.
What is the case about?
- The News Broadcasters and Digital Associations (NBDA) has filed a complaint against Google’s parent entities under the Competition Act, 2002.
- Compensation- The central contestation is that the Google has not compensated news publishers for their contribution to its platforms.
- News content- The NBDA has alleged that its members are forced to provide their news content to Google in order to prioritise their web links in the search engine result page.
- Dominance- Owing to the tech-giant’s dominance in the space, the publishers were forced to integrate content on their platforms.
- They have to trade in the company’s exchanges and use its buying tool, Google Ads/DV 360, to receive bids from advertisers.
- Accelerated Mobile Pages- Google has been accused of forcing members into using their Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) or building mirror-like light-weight webpages.
- Incompliance may affect the members’ placements in mobile search.
- Paywall options- The tech giant restricted paywall options unless publishers rebuild their websites as per AMP standards.
- Header bidding- The search-engine operator has also been accused of encouraging members to disable header bidding.
The Competition Act, 2002 and the 2007 amendment prohibits anti-competitive agreements, abuse of dominant position by enterprises and regulates combinations (acquisition, acquiring of control and M&A).
How is the current situation?
- Google’s stand- According to Google, the revenues accrued are spent towards defraying the costs of maintaining data centres, technological investments, enabling innovations and maximising advertiser return on investment.
- CCI’s direction- The CCI has ordered the Director General (DG), its probe arm, to club the matters and submit a consolidated investigation report.
Why is Google dominant?
- Market share- As per the NBDA, Google’s search engine commands a 94% market share in the country.
- Online proliferation- It holds significance with the increased transition toward online news consumption (inclusive of app-based consumption).
- With online proliferation, there is an increased reliance of news publishers on digital ad revenues, and in turn, tech-based companies.
- Traffic- More than half of the total traffic on news websites is routed through Google.
- Prioritizing the search queries- Readers would more often opt for an online web search rather than reaching out to a specific news website by typing its URL in a browser.
- Since the search engine determines which news websites would be prioritised in search queries, it has become the first port of call for information online.
What is happening outside India?
- Europe- In 2022, an anti-trust complaint was filed against Google with the European Commission, challenging its ad tech stranglehold over press publishers.
- Australia- Australia introduced the ‘Media Bargaining Code’ that requires news outlets to negotiate commercial deals with Facebook and Google with violations calling for civil penalties of up to $10 million.
- USA- The US court has allowed a larger anti-trust case against Google that alleges that the tech giant monopolized the ad-tech market and suppressed competition by its access to data.
- Canada- The Canadian government tabled legislation that aims to introduce transparency in sharing of revenue between digital news publishers and intermediary platforms such as Google.
