BERLIN - Germany's competition authority launched a probe against Alphabet Inc's Google news showcase, a platform which makes news available on the tech giant's news website, it said on Friday.

Cooperation with Google could be attractive for publishers and other news providers and offer consumers better information services, it said.

"However, it must be ensured that this does not lead to discrimination between individual publishers," the statement said. "Nor must Google's strong position in access to end customers leasd to a crowding out of competing offerings from publishers or other news providers."

  - Reuters