Tech News Buzz: Google, the Competition Authority accepts commitments to open Italian publishers

Monday, January 17, 2011

Google, the Competition Authority accepts commitments to open Italian publishers

ROME - The Competition Authority accepts commitments from Google and closes the investigation for possible abuse of dominant position. It shall inform the Authority itself, however, that he sent a report to the Government and Parliament requesting that the revised legislation for the protection of copyright, adapting to technological innovations and economic web.

With the commitments accepted and made binding on Antitrust, Google will allow publishers to select or remove content on Google News Italy will make known to the publishers' revenue-sharing quotas that determine the remuneration of advertising, remove the prohibition on recognition clicks by companies that carry its advertising platform.

What is changing. The effect will be an investigation by the Antitrust Authority concluded by publishers more control over their online content in the Google News service, and more transparency and verifiability of the economic conditions for the firms that use the services of advertising search engine.

The Authority considered that the measures proposed to eliminate the competition concerns related to the behavior of Google, however, has sent a report to the Government and Parliament requesting that the revised legislation for the protection of copyright, adapting to technological innovations and economic web.

The Authority believes it "can not dissolve antitrust inquiry - said in a statement - the node to the successful return of the activities of producing editorial content online, the economic exploitation of their works by others. It therefore a national law that defines a system of intellectual property rights on the Internet can encourage virtuous forms of cooperation between owners of exclusive rights to editorial content and providers of innovative services that reproduce and process the protected content of those rights.

" For Antitrust "is necessary in a competitive pro prospect, to overcome the imbalance between the objective value that generates the production of editorial content for the Internet system as a whole and the revenue that publishers are able to receive from its activities. It is a requirement that, given the transnational dimension of the internet phenomenon, must also be promoted by the Italian institutions in appropriate international fora, "said the Authority.