US internet giant Google has proposed to the German competition watchdog to remove its news service ‘Google News Showcase’ from internet search results in Germany.
The American tech company hopes that this will address the concerns of the competition authority that had launched an investigation. The German competition watchdog confirms the proposal and will now consult the German media companies about this.
The ‘Google News Showcase’ service was launched in Germany at the end of 2020 and allowed the media partners to monetize their articles that have been included in the Google platform. The American internet giant also wanted to integrate that platform in its search engine results, but that was met with protest.
The German publisher Corint Media, which owns the rights to radio and television channels and websites in Germany, protested. It feared that Google’s dominant position would outplay media players who would not sign an agreement with Google.
The German competition watchdog will now consult the media companies and decide whether to stop the proceedings against Google. A few days ago, it was announced that the watchdog Alphabet and its subsidiary Google would be stricter in monitoring because they have ‘an important cross-market interest’, which impacts competition.
