Competition commission accuses firm of favouring its own services to detriment of rivals
The EU has ordered Google to sell part of its advertising business, as the bloc’s competition regulator steps up its enforcement of big tech’s monopolies.
The competition commission said it had taken issue “with Google favouring its own online display advertising technology services to the detriment of competing providers of advertising technology services, advertisers and online publishers”.
Its view was therefore that “only the mandatory divestment by Google of part of its services would address its competition concerns”.
After a two-year investigation into the company’s ad-tech business, the regulator concluded that Google had abused its monopoly in online advertising by favouring its own ad exchange, AdX, in the auctions held by its own ad server, DFP, and in the way its ad-buying tools, branded as Google Ads and DV360, place bids on such exchanges.
Speaking shortly before the ruling, Margrethe Vestager, the competition commissioner, told reporters of the complexity of the investigation. “This market is a highly technical market. It is very dynamic. The detection of these behaviours can be very challenging.
“Each time a practice was detected … Google simply modified its behaviour so as to make it more difficult to detect but with the same objectives [and] with the same effects.
