German court refers publishers' case vs Google to European court

[May 09, 2017]  BERLIN (Reuters) - A court in Berlin on Tuesday said it was referring to the European Court of Justice a dispute in which German publishers are accusing Google of abusing its market power by refusing to pay them for displaying newspaper articles online.

Germany's biggest newspaper publisher, Axel Springer and 40 other publishers had accused Alphabet Inc's Google of unfair treatment.

The publishers appealed in June after the court rejected the case in April, saying that Google's business model was a "win-win" proposition for both parties.

(Reporting by Klaus Lauer; Writing by Joseph Nasr; Editing by Paul Carrel)

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