Google’s ad dominance targeted by a second probe from the UK’s competition watchdog
The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has launched a new investigation into Google’s advertising business over fears the company is unfairly freezing out competitors. It’s the second open probe the CMA has on Google, following the announcement in March of a joint investigation with the EU over alleged collusion between Google and Facebook-owner Meta.
The new investigation will dive deep into the “ad tech stack” — the collection of tools that make up the complex online ad market. The CMA notes that Google has “strong positions at various levels of the ad tech stack,” and is examining three key elements where the US company is the largest player. These include the market used by companies to advertise their ad space; the ad exchanges themselves, which automate the sale of this inventory; and the ad servers which store advertisements and choose them for display.
In other words: all the main parts that make the online ad business hum.
The CMA wants to know whether Google is using its dominance in each of these separate businesses to steer customers to its own services and make it harder for rivals to compete. Potential shady practices “include whether Google limited the interoperability of its ad exchange with third-party publisher ad servers and/or contractually tied these services together, making it more difficult for rival ad servers to compete,” writes the CMA.
As the watchdog’s chief executive Andrea Coscelli said in a press statement: “Weakening competition in this area could reduce the ad revenues of publishers, who may be forced to compromise the quality of their content to cut costs or put their content behind paywalls. It may also be raising costs for advertisers which are passed on through higher prices for advertised goods and services.”
Over the past few years, Google has been hit with various fines over similar antitrust practices in other parts of its business. These include a €2.4 billion fine from the EU in 2017 because the company favored its shopping service over rivals’ in search results; and a €1.5 billion fine from the EU in 2019 for anti-competitive behavior in advertising, similar to what the UK is now investigating. (Google lost an appeal for the first, and is currently appealing the second.)
We’ve reached out to Google for comment and will update this story if we hear back.
The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has launched a new investigation into Google’s advertising business over fears the company is unfairly freezing out competitors. It’s the second open probe the CMA has on Google, following the announcement in March of a joint investigation with the EU over alleged collusion…
Recent Posts
- Google’s Live Caption may soon become more emotionally expressive on Android
- Doctor Who: Boom review: All hail the conquering hero
- Quordle today – hints and answers for Saturday, May 18 (game #845)
- NYT Strands today — hints, answers and spangram for Saturday, May 18 (game #76)
- Logitech Pro X 60 Keyboard Review: Best, Brightest, and Now Smaller
Archives
- May 2024
- April 2024
- March 2024
- February 2024
- January 2024
- December 2023
- November 2023
- October 2023
- September 2023
- August 2023
- July 2023
- June 2023
- May 2023
- April 2023
- March 2023
- February 2023
- January 2023
- December 2022
- November 2022
- October 2022
- September 2022
- August 2022
- July 2022
- June 2022
- May 2022
- April 2022
- March 2022
- February 2022
- January 2022
- December 2021
- November 2021
- October 2021
- September 2021
- August 2021
- July 2021
- June 2021
- May 2021
- April 2021
- March 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- December 2011