Google’s Work In Digital Advert Tech Sector Below Investigation By EU – CBS San Francisco

MOUNTAIN VIEW (CBS SF / AP) – The European Union accused Google of stifling competition in digital advertising technology, and regulators there announced Tuesday that they launched a new technology giant for antitrust investigations on Tuesday.

The European Commission announced Tuesday that it had opened a formal investigation to investigate whether Google has violated the bloc’s competition rules by favoring its own online display advertising technology services at the expense of competing publishers, advertisers and advertising technology services.

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The study underscores the European concerns about Google’s dominance in the online advertising industry and whether Google is using its data lead to consolidate its position in the display advertising market, which the EU Commission estimates is valued at 20 billion euros annually. This month, the French antitrust authority fined Google more than 220 million euros for abusing its dominance in online advertising, while in the UK it entrusted the competition watchdog with the task of setting “cookies” for ad tracking from the Chrome browser to monitor to clarify an investigation.

Online display ads are banners and text that appear on websites such as newspaper home pages and are personalized based on an Internet user’s browsing history. Search ads, on the other hand, appear next to search engine results and are based on keywords that users are searching for.

The Commission, the EU executive and the bloc’s top antitrust authority, signaled that it is looking into YouTube in particular and whether Google is using the video-sharing site’s dominant position to favor its own ad-buying services by placing restrictions on competitors imposed.

According to Google, competition in online ads has made them more affordable and relevant, lowered fees, and expanded options for publishers and advertisers.

“Thousands of European companies use our advertising products to reach new customers every day and to fund their websites,” said a prepared statement from Google. “They choose them because they are competitive and effective. We will continue to work constructively with the European Commission to answer their questions and to show European businesses and consumers the benefits of our products. ”

The investigation signals a renewed attempt by Margrethe Vestager, head of competition and executive vice president for digital of the EU commission, to curb the market power of Google. It has already fined Google 8.2 billion euros (now 9.7 billion US dollars) in three different antitrust proceedings. However, it was criticized that the investigations lasted too long and the fines were little deterrent because the company could easily afford them.

“Online advertising services are at the heart of how Google and publishers monetize their online services,” said Vestager. Google collects data to be used for targeted advertising while it also sells ad space and acts as an intermediary between online advertisers and publishers, she said.

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“We are concerned that Google has made it difficult for competing online advertising services to compete in what is known as the ad tech stack,” said Vestager.

The European Commission has announced that it is investigating how Google is using technology to mediate display ad sales between online advertisers and publishers.

For one, officials are reviewing the requirements for purchasing display ads on YouTube through Google’s internal advertising platforms, while competing services may be limited in how they can serve ads on the video sharing site. They also check to see if Google’s various ad platforms are mutually beneficial.

Another area the Commission is investigating is restrictions that Google places on advertisers, publishers and competing ad brokers to access data on the identity and behavior of users who have access to Google’s own advertising services. This data can be used to tailor online advertising to individual web users.

Also under review are Google’s plans to phase out third-party browser cookies on Chrome and ad identification tags on Android devices for users who opt out of personalized advertising, as part of the company’s plans to do so Reinforce data protection measures. The Commission is examining how these plans will affect the digital advertising markets.

EU regulators have the power to impose fines of up to 10% of a company’s annual turnover. But it’s a small price to pay for wealthy tech companies like Google, which made $ 17.9 billion in profits last quarter, and the commission is turning to other methods beyond headline-grabbing fines.

Vestager has begun using “interim measures” to quickly stop anti-competitive behavior during the investigation. It also plays a leading role in updating the EU’s digital rulebook with measures aimed at containing the tech giants and preventing them from cornering digital markets in the first place.

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