Google pulls a fast one on Germany, abandoning its pursuits

German antitrust watchdog said it had dropped its lawsuit against Google over its news service News Showcase after the latter agreed to a number of adjustments that benefited press publishers.

We worry that Google News Showcase won't match comparable offers from other vendors and won't unfairly disadvantage the participating publishers, according to a statement from Andras Mundt, president of the German Competition Authority. Google "has responded to our concerns and has proceeded to some significant adjustments to the benefit of the publishers," it was added.

With the launch of Google News Showcase in France and Germany in December 2020, it should be possible for media partners to get payment for content that is relayed by the search engine on a specific platform. The American giant anticipated that integrating this new platform with the results of its primary search engine would reduce the size of its audience.
Following this announcement, the anti-trust office launched an investigation in June 2021 following its seizure by German publisher Corint Medias, which oversees the rights of German radio, television, and informational websites. The publisher announced the removal of references to media that had not signed agreements with Google. Last January, Google agreed to shut down its news platform while the Anti-Trust Office conducted an investigation.

The publishers received a number of adjustments upon arrival. According to Andras Mundt, in the future, a publisher's participation or non-participation in the Showcase offer will no longer be relevant for Google's ranking of search results. And in accordance with Google's new contractual practices, publishers will be able to more easily make the value of their authorship-related rights by passing them through a collective management organization.

In France, a dispute started in 2021 by the Authority of Competition against Google led to more than one hundred publications signing contracts for remuneration with the American company this year regarding rights adjacent to authorship. The publications are represented by two structures defending their rights.