The European Commission announced on Thursday that it has opened an investigation into Google for a potential breach of the Digital Markets Act (DMA), focusing on whether the tech giant’s spam policy unfairly demotes media publishers in search results.

The formal proceedings, announced by the Commission, will assess if Google is applying “fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory” conditions to publishers, as required by the DMA. The investigation zeroes in on Google’s “site reputation abuse policy,” which the Commission states appears to “directly impact a common and legitimate way for publishers to monetise their websites and content.”

The world’s dominant search engine and the publishing industry are at an impasse over the interpretation of this policy. Google, in response to the inve

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