EU accuses Google of favoring its own ad tech services | the world

The European Commission formally accused tech multinational Google of abusing its dominant position in favor of its advertising technology, or ‘adtech’, services today.

The social administrator announced a probe into the matter in June 2021 and today sent a charge sheet to the US company.Support online exposure of their own ad technology services over competing providers”.

Brussels believes it too.”Impossible” Since the company is active in all segments in this sector and the only solution is to sell part of its business, a change in Google’s behavior in this sector could solve the violation of social competition rules.

It is the fourth case against Google in Brussels after allegations of dominance by the Android system, its Google Shopping price comparison service and its Adsense for search platform resulted in fines of around 8,000 million euros.

On the new matter, the European Commission, online advertising “Main source of income” from Google, either by selling space directly on their own web pages or apps, or by acting as an intermediary between advertisers and the owners of web pages that offer ad space.

In particular, the multinational offers services in this sector with two buying tools for advertisers (Google Ads and DV 360), another for publishers with their ad placements (DoubleClick for Publishers or DFP) and a platform that connects the two parts of the business, AdX. .

In this way, the Community Executive concluded that Google dominates these ad technology markets within the European Economic Area (EEA) due to Google Ads, DV 360 and DFP.

“There is nothing wrong with being dominant, however our research shows that Google has abused its market position by ensuring that its brokerage tools favor AdX.”, Margrethe Vestager, Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for the Competition and Digital Agenda, explained at a press conference.

In particular, Brussels suspects that Google deliberately favored its AdX platform in advertising auctions organized by the DFP, for example, where it had to beat the value of the highest bid made by a competitor and win the contract. .

AdX enjoyed a competitive advantage over Google Ads and DV 360 buying tools, according to community officials’ preliminary results: the former mainly offered offers made on the Google platform, making AdX the preferred option.In a very impressive way”.

In addition, the European Commission considers this a change in behavior “Likely to be ineffective” As the multinational operates in both parts of the market, and its services dominate both, it will prevent Google from continuing to favor its own tools.

As a result, the community administrator’s initial view was that the only option for Google was to sell the alleged abuse of a dominant position.Part of your services”.

Although the European Commission stressed that the sending of the Statement of Objections does not determine the final outcome of the investigation, it also recalled that Google could be fined up to 10% of its global annual revenue if it proves violations and multinational companies. It persists in its behavior.

After hearing the news of the submission of the objection statement, Google insisted that the investigation was “not new” and “focused on a limited aspect” of its advertising business, while expressing its disagreement with the initial conclusions of the social authorities.

“We do not agree with the EC’s view and will reply accordingly“, in a statement, Dan Taylor, vice president of global advertising (Google), also said he respects the multinational company’s ad technology tools.Help websites and apps fund their content and enable businesses of all sizes to effectively reach new customers”.

“Google is committed to creating value for our publisher and advertiser partners in this highly competitive industry,” he emphasized.

Source: EFE

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