Alphabet Faces EU Antitrust Probe Over Google's Spam Policy

Alphabet (GOOGL, Financials) is under a new EU antitrust investigation into Google's spam policy, following complaints from publishers who say the rule has hurt their traffic and advertising revenue. The case adds to the tech giant's long list of regulatory battles in Europe.

The European Commission said Google's site reputation abuse policy may unfairly demote news and media content in search results when publishers host commercial or sponsored material. Regulators warned the practice could interfere with how publishers legitimately monetize their platforms.

EU antitrust chief Teresa Ribera said the probe will examine whether Google's rules comply with the Digital Markets Act, which aims to prevent large platforms from favoring their own services or harming competition. Violations could lead to fines of up to 10% of global annual revenue.

Google pushed back, calling the investigation misguided. Pandu Nayak, chief scientist for Google Search, said the policy aims to maintain search quality by blocking websites that use deceptive tactics to boost rankings. He noted that a German court had already dismissed a similar claim.