Publisher Mathias Doepfner accuses Google of being a monopoly

The chief executive of Europe's largest newspaper publisher has accused Google of abusing a monopoly position in the digital economy to discriminate against competitors and build up a "superstate".

In an open letter to Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt published in Wednesday's edition of the newspaper , Mathias Doepfner, the head of Germany's Axel Springer publishing house, said the US company was operating a business model that "in less reputable circles would be called a protection racket", discriminating against competitors in its search rankings.

Google's motto was "if you don't want us to finish you off, you better pay", he said.

Doepfner - whose publishing portfolio includes Europe's best-selling newspaper, the tabloid , as well as the centre-right broadsheet - admitted that his own company was completely reliant on Google, a fact that made him and other publishers scared.

"Google's employees are always decidedly friendly to us and other publishing houses, but we don't communicate on a level playing field. How could we? Google doesn't need us. But we need Google."

Doepfner argued that there had been a "fundamental shift in opinion" about Google among European citizens since Edward Snowden had revealed "close connections between big US online providers and the US intelligence agencies" last year.

"No one knows as much about its customers as Google. Even private and business e-mails are read by Gmail and analysed if the need exists," he said.