Brazil regulator deepens Google probe
- Brazil’s antitrust watchdog CADE voted on April 23 to send its long-running Google case back for a formal administrative proceeding over the company’s use of publishers’ content in search. - The tribunal backed interim president Diogo Thomson de Andrade, citing changes since the 2019 inquiry began, including AI-generated search summaries that may extract value without proportional payment. - The case now folds AI Overviews into a broader fight over search dominance, as Europe also presses Google on Android access for rival AI services. (gov.br)
Brazil’s antitrust watchdog CADE voted on April 23 to deepen its case against Google over how the company uses journalistic content in search. (finance.yahoo.com) CADE’s tribunal sent the matter back to its General Superintendence for a formal administrative proceeding after backing a proposal from interim president Diogo Thomson de Andrade. He said Google’s conduct had changed since the inquiry opened in 2019. (finance.yahoo.com) (gov.br) The original case examined Google’s automated collection of publishers’ material and how excerpts appear in search results. CADE had previously been moving toward shelving the file for lack of evidence before the tribunal reversed course. (finance.yahoo.com) (valorinternational.globo.com) The new proceeding will also examine AI Overviews, Google’s AI-generated summaries in search, which Brazilian regulators now treat as part of the same competition problem. CADE’s vote was unanimous on the AI portion and 4-1 on continuing the scraping inquiry. (valorinternational.globo.com) At issue is whether Google used third-party reporting to improve its own service, keep users on Google pages and increase revenue while publishers remained dependent on Google for audience reach. Thomson said that pattern could amount to exploitative abuse of a dominant position. (valorinternational.globo.com) (finance.yahoo.com) Board member Camila Cabral Pires Alves said the case is not yet about condemning Google, writing sector-wide rules or setting a payment system for journalism. She said the immediate goal is to keep investigating while competition concerns remain unresolved. (valorinternational.globo.com) Alves also said CADE should seek internal test data and compare impressions, clicks, search features, content categories and publisher profiles. One issue under review is “zero-click” behavior, where users read a summary and never visit the publisher. (valorinternational.globo.com) (nucleo.jor.br) Google did not immediately respond to Reuters on April 23. In Europe, the company is also facing Digital Markets Act pressure to give rival AI assistants more effective access to Android features used by Gemini. (finance.yahoo.com) (digital-markets-act.ec.europa.eu) The Brazil case does not decide liability yet, but it moves a six-year inquiry into a more serious phase. The next step is a deeper evidence build on whether Google’s search and AI products are taking value from news without fair return. (nucleo.jor.br) (gov.br)
