Google Ads Business To Face Antitrust Probe In EU

The EU Commission has again initiated antitrust proceedings against Google. It’s about Google’s market power in the field of online advertising. It is investigating whether the US corporation has broken the rules by giving its own services an advantage as reported by Wall Street Journal.

“As part of the formal investigation procedure, the Commission will investigate in particular whether Google is distorting competition by restricting third-party access to user data for advertising on websites and in apps and by reserving this data for its own use,” the EU responsible said today -Commission.

Google: Market Leader

Google generated around $147 billion in advertising revenue last year alone. The group clearly dominates the market and offers the leading tools for buying and selling ads. The question that the EU Commission now wants to clarify is whether Google is hindering competitors and publishers, for example via the Google search engine, and thus gaining an advantage.

Commission Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager, responsible for competition policy, said: “Online advertising services are crucial for Google and publishers to make money from their online services. Google collects data for targeted advertising, sells advertising space, and also acts as an online advertising broker. This means that the company is represented at almost every level of the online advertising value chain, “explains Vestager.

Earlier: Google filed appeal against European Commission’s $5 billion Android fine

“We suspect that Google may have made it more difficult for competing for online advertising services to compete in the advertising technology sector. A level playing field is important for all companies active in the industry: both for advertisers who want to reach consumers on the publisher’s websites also for publishers who want to sell their advertising space to advertisers in order to generate income to finance content. We will also check whether the user tracking procedures used by Google are in line with fair competition.“

In this case, Google threatens to pay a fine of millions.