Germany’s newspaper and magazine publisher associations, the VDZ and BDZV, have filed a complaint with the country’s Federal Cartel Office against Google, Deutsche Welle reports.
Although details as to the exact nature of the complaint have not yet been released, the main concern is believed to revolve around “snippets” from media websites and news articles which show up in search results on Google News. Publishers say Google has not paid for the use of these articles, and that regulations must be tightened to protect the authors from plagiarism.
The associations also say the way search results are currently listed is unfair. In November, a BDZV official said his group wanted to know why some Google News results were ranked higher than others.