Brazil deepens probe into Google

Brazil’s antitrust tribunal voted on April 23 to deepen a case against Google over how its search products use journalistic content and AI-generated summaries. (gov.br) (reuters.com) The Administrative Council for Economic Defense, known as CADE, unanimously backed acting president Diogo Thomson de Andrade’s proposal to send the matter back to its General Superintendence for formal administrative proceedings. (gov.br) CADE said the original inquiry started in 2019 around Google’s automated collection of publishers’ material and its display in search results through headlines, excerpts and images. (gov.br) The tribunal split the issues as it voted: five members backed examining AI use, while the older scraping question advanced by a 4-1 majority, according to Valor International. (valorinternational.globo.com) Commissioner Camila Cabral Pires Alves said the point was not to condemn Google immediately or set a payment regime for journalism, but to avoid closing the file while competition concerns remain unresolved. (valorinternational.globo.com) In her vote, Alves said sending some traffic back to publishers does not by itself remove the competition concern, and she asked investigators to gather feature-by-feature data on impressions, clicks and publisher impact. (valorinternational.globo.com) Thomson argued that Google’s conduct had changed since 2019, and that AI tools can use third-party content to improve Google’s own service, hold user attention and possibly raise revenue. (gov.br) (valorinternational.globo.com) Google said the decision reflects a misunderstanding of how its products work and of the value they deliver to news publishers, and said it would keep engaging with CADE. (g1.globo.com) (europesays.com) Brazil’s National Newspaper Association called the ruling historic and said the case puts Brazil at the front of a global fight over whether AI systems and search platforms can reuse journalism without payment. (valorinternational.globo.com) (g1.globo.com) The next step is not a penalty but a fuller investigation, with CADE’s staff now expected to collect more evidence on how Google’s search features affect traffic, monetisation and dependence in Brazil’s news market. (gov.br)