Google probed by Italy's anti-trust arm

Italy's anti-trust watchdog is investigating Google's treatment of local newspapers on the Italian versions of its news site and search engine. On Thursday, as reported by Reuters, the country's competition authority announced its Google probe after a complaint from the Italian Federation of Newspaper Editors (FIEG). According …

[Sorry that handle is already taken.]

Italy... Has a Competition Authority?

Of all the world's ironies...

[Anonymous Coward]

could it be..

that since they are not on Google news, their click through rates have fallen through the floor and the search algorithm correctly lists them but much much further down the results?

Nah ... the Italians would never accept a rational argument like that!

[Anonymous Coward]

Wot no Berlusconi mention?

Surely mentioning the man who owns the Italian media should be compulsory in an article related to Italian media?

[Davide Inglima]

Even better than that!

Italy has a Privacy Authority too.

[Bassey]

Re: Sorry that handle is already taken

Damn. Beat me to it :)

Maybe it just works the other way around to all other competition Authorities. Their job must be to eliminate ALL competition from the market save those controlled by Silvio "Where'd I leave my pants" Berlusconi.

[Nicholas Wright]

I don't see a problem

Italian newspapers have websites, which have to be paid for by advertising.

Google ripping the news from their website and showing on its pages doesn't pay the italian newspaper.

But Google displaying the news as a search result, DOES encourage people to view the news and enable the italian newspapers to get paid.