Yes, they can. See: Australia. Google is forced by the govt to pay Murdoch for showing their articles in search results. Google is not allowed to not index tho

Yes, they can. See: Australia. Google is forced by the govt to pay Murdoch for showing their articles in search results. Google is not allowed to not index those pages! https://www.theguardian.com/media/2021/feb/17/news-corp-agrees-deal-with-google-over-payments-for-journalism https://www.theguardian.com/media/2021/feb/17/news-corp-agre... I believe the legislation is active.