EU Commission opens investigations into Google, Red Bull

BRUSSELS

The European Commission opened separate investigations on Thursday into Google Search and energy drink Red Bull for potential breaches of EU competition and digital market rules.

The commission said in a statement that it is examining whether Google's "site reputation abuse policy" has led to the demotion of media publishers' websites and content in Google Search, particularly when those websites include material from commercial partners.

Google has argued the policy is designed to prevent manipulative ranking practices.

The investigation will assess whether the policy limits publishers' ability to conduct legitimate business, innovate, and cooperate with third-party content providers. Alphabet – Google’s parent company – could face fines of up to 10% of its global turnover, rising to 20% for repeated violations.

"We are concerned that Google's policies do not allow news publishers to be treated in a fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory manner in its search results," said Teresa Ribera, the EU Commission executive vice-president for clean, just, and competitive transition.

Separately, the commission launched an antitrust probe into Red Bull, focusing on alleged practices that may have restricted competition for energy drinks larger than 250 milliliters (8.4 fluid ounces) in the off-trade sector, including supermarkets and petrol stations.

Red Bull is accused of offering incentives to delist or disadvantage competitors' products and misusing its role as category manager to influence product visibility.

"We want to see if these practices may be keeping prices high and limiting choice of energy drinks for consumers," Ribera noted.

The commission emphasized that opening the proceedings does not prejudge the outcome.