A report in German publication Handelszeitung suggests that the Google vs rightsholders situation may have reached boiling point last summer. It cites an unpublished document that suggests the IFPI seriously considered suing Google over its refusal to strip infringing websites out of its search engine results. TorrentFreak has published some English sections from the document: “Google continues to fail to prioritize legal music sites over illegal sites in search results, claiming that its algorithm for search results is based on the relevance of sites to consumers… With a view to addressing this failure, IFPI obtained a highly confidential and preliminary legal opinion in July 2011 on the possibility of bringing a competition law complaint against Google for abuse of its dominant position, given the distortion of the market for legitimate online music that is likely to result from Google’s prioritizing of illegal sites.” But such a lawsuit didn’t emerge - the document may have leaked now, but the idea may well have been shelved.
Report claims IFPI considered suing Google for search policy
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February 17th, 2012 by Music Ally
