Germany: Closed Bundeskartellamt investigation into Google News Showcase over potential anti-competitive practices

On 21 December 2022, the Bundeskartellamt closed the investigation into "Google News Showcase", a service provided by Google/Alphabet, which was opened on 4 June 2021. The service presents journalistic content of various publications to users in form of "story panels", for which Google pays licensing fees. Google aimed to integrate the use of story panels into its general search functions, allowing publishers to potentially present their content to users in more prominent or attractive ways. Acting on a complaint, the Bundeskartellamt opened an investigation on its own initiative to examine whether the integration of Google News Showcase functions into general search functions constitutes a self-preferencing act and if unreasonable conditions are imposed on participating publishers. Following Alphabet/Google's commitments and the statement that Google News Showcase members will also be entitled to their ancillary copyrights, which they can enforce collectively through a collecting society, Bundeskartellamt determined that "Google News Showcase" would not infringe on German publishers' ancillary copyrights.