France Says Google Is Main Cause Of News Publishers’ Woes

French authorities have finally got some kind of ruling against Google -- but it turns out to be rather toothless.

The competition watchdog, L’Autorité de la Concurrence, in an opinion expressed to the finance minister, says Google is “dominant” in search advertising (no surprise there - Google’s search share in Europe is far higher than in the US). But it did not rule Google that is abusing that dominance, instead saying: “This dominance is, of course, not wrong in itself: it is the result of a tremendous effort of innovation, backed by significant and ongoing investment. Only the abuse of such market power could be sanctioned against.” The authority says it has reviewed the search advertising market and defined what would constitute anti-competitive acts within it. But it has stopped short of actually testing Google or anyone else against those definitions, saying: “The authority, which is acting in an advisory capacity, did not rule on the legality of such practices ... investigations are often long and complex.” In other words, the authority’s determination in no way leads to a kind of “Google Tax” that some had been considering.