The European Commission would have imposed on Google to divest part of its online advertising services to solve competition problems in the industry. This is the conclusion of a preliminary investigation launched in June 2021 by the EU Antitrust, which accused the company of “violating EU rules” abusing its dominant position in the ad technology chain. Brussels argues that Google favors its own ‘display’ services (such as banners and videos) to the detriment of competitors, advertisers and online publishers.
Google, EU wants it to sell part of advertising services
Google offers various services adtech which act as an intermediary between advertisers and publishers to show ads on websites or mobile apps. Check out two tools for buying ads: “Google Ads” is “DV 360”. And then an ad server, “DoubleClick For Publishers o DFP”. An exchange of announcements, “AdX”. The Commission has preliminarily established that Google has a dominant position in markets throughout the European Economic Area.
According to the EU, Google has exploited the its ruling power in several ways since 2014: for example, it favored its AdX ad exchange in ad selection auctions run by its DFP ad server, giving it an edge over other competitors. In short: too many services, too linked to each other.
The European Commission would also have expressed doubts about the effectiveness of a behavioral remedy to prevent Google from continuing or initiating new preferential practices. He pointed out that Google is present on both sides of the market with its own ad server publisher and its purchasing tools and has a dominant position on both. The only solution would be there forced sale by Google of part of its services.
Google promptly responded to the letter of objection: “We do not agree with the European Commission’s view and will respond appropriately. Our ad technology tools help websites and apps fund themselves with their content and allow businesses of all sizes to effectively reach new consumers”.