German regulator won’t pursue publisher complaints against Google

Today, a German regulator said that it will not pursue complaints brought against Google from a group of publishers that are displeased with the company’s search engine providing full access to their online news articles. A troop of media outlets including Axel Springer SE and Burda joined forces to form a group called VG Media to request that Google compensate them for making their web content viewable to the public.

“Sufficient suspicion is always necessary to initiate an abuse procedure. The complaint from VG Media did not establish this,” Andreas Mundt, president of Germany’s Federal Cartel Office, said in a recent statement.

A newly enforced German law allows publishers to prevent search engines from displaying their full online news articles and requires that such content be limited to brief excerpts.

The Federal Cartel Office said that it would monitor how Google responded to publishers’ requests going forward and that it would initiate antitrust proceedings if needed.

(via Reuters)