Italian antitrust investigators descended on Google’s Milan offices on Thursday, bringing the latest flare-up in Europe over the US internet giant’s increasing influence over traditional print-based media.
Italy’s antitrust agency said it was concerned that Google News, which draws headlines and brief summaries of stories from online news sites unless their owners opt out, represented an abuse of the company’s dominant position on the web. The case was prompted by a complaint from the Italian Federation of Newspaper Editors.
