A legal complaint filed by German publishers against Google was junked by a court in Berlin. The complaint alleges that Google was abusing its market power when it refused to pay publishers for displaying their newspaper articles online.
German publishing powerhouse Axel Springer and 40 other publishers filed the lawsuit against Alphabet Inc.'s Google to raise the issue of whether or not Google should pay them for every article that is released online. The publishers have accused Google of unfair treatment as the search engine company continues to refuse to pay for the newspaper content.
The articles in question have been made freely available on Google News, YouTube and other Google networks.
The publishers also accused Google of threatening them with punishment by abbreviating their news stories if they continue to demand for payment.
"So bringing a civil claim before the responsible court is the only way to enforce the ancillary copyright for press publishers against Google," said a spokesman for VG Media, a consortium of publishers.
In its defense, Google said the publishers still profit from advertising revenues through the website.
A Berlin court decided that Google's business model does not pose a threat to publishers and is in no way unfair. Under the proposition, even though 90 percent of the German market share goes to Google it doesn't reflect undermined for the publishers.
"We don't want to have legal disputes with publishers," Google stated in response to the court's decision, as quoted by Reuters. "We'd much rather collaborate with them to direct visitors to their websites and apps in order to strengthen digital journalism."
Despite the lawsuit, Axel Spring has continued to partner with Google for the search company's Accelerated Mobile Pages publishing product for the German weekly Die Welt. As a digital publisher, Axel Spring is reliant on different platforms and technologies to boost its viewership.
Google's Accelerated Mobile Pages has partnered with different publishers worldwide, including the New York Times, the Guardian and BuzzFeed.
Axel Spring, however, clarified that their recent partnership does not mean they "cannot disagree with Google on more fundamental issues," as noted by Recode.
Axel Springer has been very vocal about its opposition towards Google's advertising model. While the German publisher maintains an advertising relationship with the top search company there is fear that Google might run a global network monopoly and discriminate against other competitors through search results and rankings.
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