The practices of the almighty Google are once again called into question. This time it is Spain, specifically the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC), which announced yesterday that it is investigating the multinational for possible abuse of its dominant position and unfair competition practices that would affect publication publishers of press and Spanish news agencies.
The case is directed against the US parent of Google and its Irish and Spanish subsidiaries after finding sufficient evidence that they may have imposed unfair trading conditions on publishers of press publications and news agencies established in Spain by to the exploitation of its content protected by intellectual property rights.
On the other hand, the investigated conduct would also include practices that would constitute acts of unfair competition that could distort free competition with an impact on the public interest.
This file originates from a complaint received at the CNMC in June 2021 by the Spanish Center for Reproduction Rights (Cedro), the non-profit association dedicated to “representing and defending the legitimate interests of authors and publishers of books and periodicals, facilitating and promoting the legal use of their works”, as they explain on their website.
“In 2021, Cedro filed this complaint with the CNMC against Google for not having paid our associates the copyrights derived from their news aggregation service, as other similar companies do. Since then, Competència was analyzing the file”, Javier Díaz de Olarte, Cedro’s legal director, explains to La Vanguardia.
The tension between the technology multinational and newspaper publishers goes back a long way. In fact, the Google News service in Spain has been suspended between 2014 and 2022, after Google’s refusal to pay for the copyrights claimed by the press publishers. The activity resumed last year once the so-called “Iceta law” led to the transposition of the European copyright directive and, as the company said at the time, “after the update of the copyright law and the digital single market”.
In view of Cedro’s complaint and the information collected as part of the reserved information phase, the CNMC’s Competition Directorate considers that there are reasonable indications from the commission, by Google, of possible violations of the articles 2 and 3 of the Competition Defense law, as well as article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.
“We do not know the details of the CNMC file. But we will be in person to find out how the competition investigation has evolved”, said Javier Díaz de Olarte yesterday, a few minutes after the news was made public. In the same vein, from Google España, they announced the need to study the file and its details more carefully, as they understand that the nature of the claims is not yet clear. “Google works constructively with publishers in Spain and Europe. We make significant investments through our products, programs and financing. We will analyze the details of this case and answer the doubts of the CNMC”, they pointed to Google España.
The organization has a maximum period of 18 months for the investigation of the file and for its resolution. It is not the first time that the CNMC investigates Google. In 2021, it ended up shelving an investigation into its role in the online advertising market after concluding that, despite its dominant position, it was not abusing it. It also concluded in favor of the multinational when it investigated its partnership with restaurant platform El Tenedor.
