The Civil Chamber of the Munich Regional Court, specialized in antitrust cases, has prohibited the German Ministry of Health from cooperating with Google. They had agreed to highlight boxes with health information in Google search results, based on the national health portal heil.bund.de. The court ruled that the ministry entered into an agreement with Google that restricts competition in the market for health portals.
Private providers are not able to enjoy the same position in Google search results, the position “0” in the info box, the court noted. NetDoktor.de filed the complaint before the court. As the operator of a health portal, NetDoktor is dependent on achieving good visibility on the search results page, as 90 percent of users reach NetDoktor through Google search. This visibility is severely restricted because the info boxes distract the users from the general search results, the court said.
As part of the cooperation with Google, the health ministry provides an interface for all search engine operators to access the content of the health portal. Google uses the content to fill info boxes with brief information on the respective health topic. At the end of the box users find a link to heil.bund.de.
