Polish antitrust regulator accuses Google of unfair market practices
The penalty could reach 10% of Google’s annual turnover.
A Polish regulator said Google was breaking the rules when the tech giant displayed articles from local media publishers in Google Search, Google News and Google Discover. Poland’s Competition and Consumer Protection Office, UOKiK for short, said Google was relying on its dominant market position and failed to provide necessary data during compensation negotiations with the country’s news publishers.
Tomasz Chróstny, president of UOKiK, said in a press release that there were rules that clearly defined what information Google was required to provide to publishers to determine appropriate compensation and that the company still failed to do so. The agency could fine the company up to 10 percent of Google’s annual turnover, according to Chróstny. We’ve reached out to Google for comment and will update the story if we receive a response.
Like UOKiK, the European Commission previously opened an antitrust investigation against Google, aimed at determining whether the company provided appropriate compensation for items used in its AI Showcase or AI Fashion features. Before Google, the Polish authority had also accused Apple of using its App Tracking Transparency functionality to create unfair competition in the personalized advertising market.
