Media News - Friday, August 28, 2009

Anti- trust probe into Google Italy

Italy's anti-trust authority has opened a probe to determine whether Google Italy has abused its position as the world's leading Internet search engine. The action follows a complaint filed by the Italian newspaper publishers federation FIEG which claims that Google does not allow them a voice in deciding what news from their websites is used by Google News Italia nor how it is used. According to FIEG, if member sites do not want their news to appear on Google News Italia or if their coverage is not picked up they are automatically excluded from Google's search engine, by far the most used in the world. The anti-trust authority said on Thursday that the aim of its probe was to determine whether this practice has a negative impact on the online advertising market. In its complaint, FIEG said that Google News Italia, by choosing what news from other sites it wanted to post on its own site, had a negative impact on the ability of online publishers to attract advertising and investment on members' home pages. (ANSA)

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