Abuse of dominant position: CCI seeks info from INS members in complaint against Google

The Indian Newspaper Society (INS) had filed a complaint with the Competition Commission of India (CCI) against Google. It was stated that Alphabet Inc. (parent company), Google LLC, Google India Private Limited, Google Ireland Limited, and Google Asia Pacific Pte Ltd are allegedly abusing their dominant position related to News Referral Services and Google Ad Tech Services in the Indian online news media market. It was also highlighted that the producers/ publishers of news, which are made available in digital format, are not being paid a fair value for their content, despite them having invested heavily in creating appropriate content for the customers, who search for news items using the Google platform.

The CCI after examining the contentions of the Society found that prima facie these allegations of abuse of dominant position are under the purview of the Competition Act, 2002 and it sought a detailed investigation by the Director General.

In this connection, the Competition Commission of India vide notice dated 12.08.2022 has now sought certain information/ data from the publication members. The INS has requested the members to send it the information/ data/ documents on the parameters it laid out.

The Society is of the firm view that, in the benefit of the entire industry, the submissions should be collective and comprehensive to enable the CCI to arrive at a fair conclusion.