EU Launches Probe After Media Groups Claim Google’s Policy Hurts Traffic
Google: The European Union has launched an antitrust investigation into Google's spam policy. Publishers say this policy is impacting their revenue. Google could face heavy fines if found guilty.
The European Union has launched an investigation into the spam policy at Google over antitrust issues. According to them, this policy is affecting their revenue. If convicted, Google may have to face heavy fines.
Since last March, Google has begun to crack down on companies using trickery to raise their rankings in search results. Its new policy bars the practice of putting third-party pages on sites to boost rankings, a technique called parasite SEO.
Google is demoting the rankings of news sites and publishers if they feature content from commercial partners. This is directly impacting publishers' revenue. The EU antitrust chief said, "We will ensure that Google complies with the Digital Markets Act (DMA)."
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Google said the investigation was "misguided" and would harm the quality of search results. Google Search's chief scientist wrote in a blog post that "our anti-spam policy is fair and necessary." A German court had previously upheld the policy.
Under the Digital Markets Act, companies can face fines of up to 10% of their global sales for violating the rules. Several European media associations have also complained that Google's policy is harming their sites.
