Poland’s competition regulator, UOKiK, has opened a proceeding alleging that Google’s publisher-payment negotiations may have involved an abuse of a dominant position. The case concerns press articles appearing in Google Search, Google News and Google Discover. It is an allegation, not a final finding that Google broke the law, and UOKiK has not set a payment rate.
What UOKiK says Google did
UOKiK says Poland’s 2024 copyright-law amendment, which implemented the EU Copyright Directive (Directive (EU) 2019/790), provides for online services to agree terms with publishers for using fragments of press publications in return for remuneration. The regulator says platforms should provide the information publishers need to determine that remuneration.
UOKiK alleges that Google proposed payments without giving publishers enough information about how it used their press publications, the related revenues, the parameters used to calculate remuneration, or the documents needed to verify the assumptions behind its proposals. In the regulator’s view, publishers could not properly assess whether the proposed terms were fair or grounded in accurate information.
UOKiK’s concern is that an information gap may have made negotiations ineffective, particularly because publishers depend on Google as a route to readers and may have weaker bargaining power. The regulator says this could have enabled a dominant platform to impose unfair terms. It also stresses that holding a dominant position is not itself prohibited; the suspected infringement is abuse of that position. UOKiK’s announcement describes the allegations and the proceeding.
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Which services and companies are in the Polish proceeding?
The proceeding concerns remuneration for press articles appearing in Google Search, Google News and Google Discover. UOKiK names four companies: Alphabet Inc, Google LLC, Google Ireland Limited and Google Poland. The regulator identifies Alphabet as Google’s parent, Google Ireland as the company currently operating and managing Search in the European Economic Area, and Google Poland as the seller of online advertising space. UOKiK says each company’s responsibility will be analyzed during the proceeding; it has not yet determined liability.
What has—and has not—been decided
UOKiK’s announcement concerns allegations in an ongoing competition proceeding, not a final infringement decision. It does not set the amount publishers should receive. UOKiK’s president says the regulator is not a party to the negotiations and does not assess the appropriate remuneration rate. If publishers and the platform fail to agree, the announcement says Poland’s Office of Electronic Communications (UKE) may determine the remuneration.
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UOKiK says the maximum penalty for abuse of a dominant position may reach 10% of an undertaking’s turnover. That is a statutory maximum cited by the regulator, not a proposed or imposed fine in this case.
How Google has responded
Reuters reported that Google said it was reviewing UOKiK’s decision. Reuters also reported Google’s statement that it had licensing agreements with more than 70 publications in Poland and its characterization of Google as the only platform with a structured approach to remunerating news publishers at scale. The count and characterization are Google’s claims as reported by Reuters, not findings in UOKiK’s announcement. Reuters’ report covers the response.
How this differs from the European Commission’s Google AI inquiry
The Polish case is separate from a European Commission inquiry opened in December 2025. UOKiK describes the Commission inquiry as concerning publishers’ content used in Google’s AI services, remuneration and publishers’ ability to object. The Polish proceeding instead concerns negotiations over press articles appearing in Search, Google News and Discover. UOKiK says the proceedings are independent; neither should be treated as having established that Google infringed the law.
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| Proceeding | Regulator and scope | Conduct under examination | Status described by UOKiK |
|---|---|---|---|
| Polish publisher-payment proceeding | UOKiK; Poland; Search, Google News and Discover | Remuneration negotiations and the information publishers allegedly lacked to assess proposed terms | Ongoing proceeding; allegations, not a final infringement finding |
| European Commission inquiry | European Commission; Google AI services | Use of publisher content in AI services, remuneration and publishers’ ability to object | Inquiry opened in December 2025; UOKiK describes it as independent from the Polish proceeding |
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