Seems the Italian government is not finished investigating Google. Last month three Google executives were convicted of privacy violations and received suspended six-month jail sentences over a video showing a teenaged boy being bullied.
Antitrust investigations over Google’s impact of the newspaper industry were started in Italy last year, but this is the first announcement of the government’s examination of Adsense.
Translating the news from il Giornale:
– Google is not obliged to comunicate how the payments are calculated;
– The payments are calculated exclusively from data that Google holds;
– Google can modify at any moment the price determination and payment structure at its discretion.
Speculation has already started on whether Google would just stop offering Adsense in Italy – but the likeihood that other EU countries could do the same suggests they would fight the action.