The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has ordered a probe into complaints against Google for allegedly abusing its dominant position in the online news market.
In a statement, the Indian Newspapers Society (INS) said that Alphabet Inc. (the parent company of Google), Google LLC, Google India Private Limited, Google Ireland Limited and Google Asia Pacific Pte Limited are allegedly abusing their dominant position related to news referral services and Google Ad Tech services in the Indian online news media market, which is in violation of Section 4 of the Competition Act, 2002.
The INS alleged that producers/publishers of news, which is made available in digital format, are not being paid a fair value for their content despite their having invested heavily in creating appropriate content for customers, who search for news items using the Google platform.
