Two officials told the FT that the European Commission is gearing up to investigate claims that Google buries publishers that run third-party promotional content, such as sponsored editorial pieces, which many media outlets treat as vital revenue lifelines.

The commission planned to trumpet the probe on Thursday, although the timing might slip because nothing in Brussels ever runs on schedule.

This shiny new headache falls under the Digital Markets Act, which is meant to stop so-called digital gatekeepers from trampling everyone else. Any guilty party can look forward to fines of up to ten per cent of global turnover, which would sting even Alphabet.

The move suggests the incoming commission, which took over in December, fancies continuing the DMA crusade despite Trump bellowing at EU tech rules and hinting at tariffs like a bloke threatening to block the driveway with his van.

Google is already in the DMA naughty corner for allegedly tweaking search to favour its own toys and for making life hard for app developers who want to steer customers to cheaper offers outside its store.

This latest probe follows a spicy 2.95 billion-euro fine slapped on Google two months ago for its search-advertising capers, which prompted Trump to puff up his chest and threaten Europe with tariff fireworks.

Brussels had already belted Google with a 4.12 billion euro fine in 2018 for using Android to flatten rivals, which did little to mellow the mood between the two sides.

Google stayed silent on the upcoming announcement. However, it has been grumbled that users moan about parasite SEO and site reputation abuse, which is when respectable sites let rubbish content camp out on their pages.

The company added that it enforces spam rules through a careful review process with a defined reconsideration route for anyone caught in its net. We guess that if that were working, there would be no complaints.