Allegations Against Google by the NBDA

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

The News Broadcasters and Digital Association (NBDA) approached the Competition Commission of India (CCI) against search-engine operator Google, alleging that the latter had deprived them of their justifiable revenue acquired from news dissemination on the tech-giant’s platforms. 

The complaint would be clubbed with similar cases filed by the Indian Newspaper Society (INS) in February this year and the Digital News Publishers Association (DNPA) last year.

Why is Google dominant?

• As per the NBDA, Google’s search engine commands a 94% market share in the country. 
• The number becomes all the more crucial for news publishers with the increased transition toward news consumption online (inclusive of app-based consumption). 
• The traditional newspaper industry in India has sustained itself on a business model wherein advertising accounts for two-third of its total revenue. 
• On similar lines, with online proliferation, there is an increased reliance of news publishers on digital ad revenues, and in turn, tech-based companies. 
• More than half of the total traffic on news websites is routed through Google. 
• The search engine, by way of its algorithms and internal quality vetting, determines which news websites would be prioritised in search queries. 
• Essential to understand here is that search engines are an important determinant in online news consumption. 
• Readers would more often opt for an online web search rather than reaching out to a specific news website by typing its URL in a browser. 
• This has made search-engines the first port of call for information online.

Allegations against Google

• Dominance of Google: Google’s search engine commands a 94% market share in the country. More than half of the total traffic on news websites is routed through Google. The search engine, by way of its algorithms and internal quality vetting, determines which news websites would be prioritised in search queries.
• Google not compensated news publishers for their contribution to (Google’s various) platforms and has engaged in practices to bolster its monopoly in the space. The DNPA had put forth that website publishers receive only 51% of the advertisement revenue.
• “Unilateral and non-transparent” determination and sharing of ad revenues, lack of transparency and information asymmetry in the ad-tech services provided by Google. This bothers the quality of services and innovation in the news realm.
• Publishers have been “forced” to integrate content on their platforms and use its buying tool, Google Ads/DV 360, to receive bids from advertisers.
• Encouraging members to disable header bidding – It refers to a programmatic bidding process that unifies multiple exchanges for a single bidding event.
• “Forcing” members into using their Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) or building mirror-like ‘light-weight’ webpages. However, it restricted paywall options unless publishers rebuild their websites as per AMP standards.
• Google represents the buyer and the seller in the same transaction, while also operating the auction house in the middle, and selling its own inventory.

What is happening outside India?

• In February this year, the European Publishers Council filed an anti-trust complaint against Google with the European Commission, challenging its existing “ad tech stranglehold” over press publishers. 
• Australia introduced the ‘Media Bargaining Code’ in February to address the imbalance.