Google Sued by Danish Job-Search Company for Copyright Infringement
Danish online job-search competitor, Jobindex, has filed a lawsuit against Alphabet’s Google on Thursday. This comes a year after Jobindex lodged a complaint with EU antitrust regulators, alleging that the U.S. tech giant was showing preferential treatment to its own job-search service.
The Danish Media Association, on behalf of Jobindex, sued Google in a Danish court for copyright infringement.
Jobindex has accused Google of copying job advertisements into its own service without permission and demands compensation and damages for copyright infringements.
This is the first lawsuit in a Danish court under the new EU copyright rules that came into effect in 2021, regarding the liability of platforms for content uploaded to their services.
“We are ready to compete with Google, but it must be on equal terms, not with Google for Jobs, which has products on its shelves that are not theirs,” Jobindex CEO Kaare Danielsen said in a statement.
Danish Media Association CEO Mads Brandstrup urged Danish authorities to enforce copyright rules against Big Tech.
Jobindex has not used Google’s tools to report copyright-infringing content, a Google spokesperson said.
“Jobs in Google Search was created to make the job search as simple as possible, making it easier for people to find relevant job results faster and increasing traffic and job searches for participating employers,” he said.
“All employers – big or small – can participate. No one is involved in the Search Jobs feature unless they choose to be – and we respect all decisions not to participate in these features.”
The EU’s cartel supervisory body has not yet taken action on Jobindex’s complaint.
