Abuse proceedings against Google?

The Federal Cartel Office (Bundeskartellamt) was to investigate, in the context of a complaint lodged by VG Media, whether formal abuse proceedings against the search engine giant Google should be initiated on the grounds of alleged breaches of competition law.

The collective management organisation for the copyright and related rights of private television and radio broadcasters (VG Media) lodged a complaint with the Federal Cartel Office (Bundeskartellamt). The complaint was directed against the conduct of the search engine operator with regard to the related right of press publishers.

Under this related right, press publishers may prohibit search engines and similar services from using their press publications, insofar as the use extends beyond individual words and the smallest text excerpts.

Decision of the Federal Cartel Office (Bundeskartellamt)

The Federal Cartel Office (Bundeskartellamt) announced in a notification of 22.08.2014 that there were no sufficient indications to initiate formal abuse proceedings against Google. This was, however, a mandatory prerequisite for the initiation of such proceedings.

The complaint lodged by the collective management organisation VG Media did not relate to any specific misconduct by Google, but merely to the possibility of pointing out potential competition law violations by Google if publishers invoked their related right against Google. There were no indications that Google penalised publishers in search results if the publishers asserted corresponding rights.

However, the Federal Cartel Office (Bundeskartellamt) would continue to monitor Google's actual conduct and demonstrable reactions to the assertion of the related right by individual publishers or by VG Media from a competition law perspective and would, if necessary, consider initiating proceedings against Google on its own initiative.

Conclusion

At present, the Federal Cartel Office (Bundeskartellamt) sees no concrete indications that Google is attempting to force press publishers to refrain from asserting their related rights. However, if this suspicion is substantiated, Google faces abuse proceedings initiated by the Federal Cartel Office (Bundeskartellamt) on its own initiative.