EU files antitrust complaint against Google over ad market dominance
Christopher Hutton
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A key European regulatory body filed an antitrust complaint against Google alleging it has abused its dominant presence in the advertising market, a move that follows U.S. regulatory efforts to rein in the search engine’s market power in digital advertising.
The European Commission issued a preliminary opinion on Wednesday arguing that Google had abused its role as the dominant digital advertiser. The digital company would be forced to sell parts of its business if the commission concludes that Google did indeed abuse its role.
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“Our preliminary concern is that Google may have used its market position to favor its own intermediation services,” Margrethe Vestager, the commission’s executive vice president in charge of competition policy, said in a statement. The commission also argues that Google “abused its dominant positions” since 2014 at least in order to favor its own internal businesses.
Google contested the claim. “Our advertising technology tools help websites and apps fund their content, and enable businesses of all sizes to effectively reach new customers,” Dan Taylor, Google vice president of global ads, said in a statement. “The Commission’s investigation focuses on a narrow aspect of our advertising business and is not new. We disagree with the EC’s view and we will respond accordingly.”
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A finding of guilty would be Google’s fourth major violation in the EU. Google was fined three times between 2017 and 2019 for a total of $8.6 billion over allegations of “systematically favoring” its shopping service, abusing Android’s market dominance and preventing AdSense users from accepting advertising from rival search engines.
The United States has two ongoing antitrust cases against Google, including one over its advertising technology.