Google commits to search sans prejudice in Italy

Rome, Jan 18: A probe against Google by Italy's antitrust authority, came to an end on Jan 17 after the group accepted commitments proposed by the internet giant.

The enquiry was initiated in Aug 2009 after allegations made by the Italian Federation of Newspaper Editors that any publication refusing to appear on the Google News Italia website was excluded from Google's search engine.

In a statement addressing the concerns of publishers, Google said, "While we comply with Italian and EU competition laws, we also understand that there is always room for improvement in our business."

Italy's antitrust agency chief had warned the internet giant to be prepared to cough up heavy fines if it fails to resolve the issue with the publishers.

The authority informed that Google has now ensured newspaper publishers will not have content excluded from the search engine and pledged to disclose revenue-sharing patterns.

OneIndia News