Google has published the findings of an experiment where it removed news articles from search results for 1% of users over a period of 2.5 months in eight European markets. The results allegedly show that news has negligible value to Google’s advertising business.

The experiment was conducted in response to European copyright laws, which require Google to compensate news publishers for using excerpts of their content. However, Google claims that publishers greatly overestimate the value of their journalism to its business model. According to the report, the actual value of displaying news “could not be statistically distinguished from zero,” either overall or by country.

Google likely intends to use these findings as leverage in negotiations with European publishers over payment. Nevertheless, the company is navigating a complex situation, having already faced significant antitrust fines in France related to its handling of news content. Notably, Google was fined over $270 million for using news publishers’ data without permission, and more than $592 million for breaching an antitrust order related to copyright negotiations with publishers.

Germany’s competition authority has increased scrutiny of Google’s behavior surrounding news, forcing the company to make changes to its practices. Any attempts by Google to downplay the value of news and circumvent the EU copyright law could lead to further regulatory issues. The company initially included French users in the experiment but abandoned this part of the test after a French court warned of potential fines for violating a prior agreement with the antitrust authority. Additionally, Google chose not to conduct the test in Germany.

The eight European markets where the experiment was conducted were Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, and Spain.