Margrethe Vestager – Photo EU Council
(BRUSSELS) – The EU Commission opened a formal antitrust probe Tuesday into whether Google violated EU competition rules by favouring its own online display advertising technology services in the ‘ad tech’ supply chain.
The EU executive is concerned that Google has made it harder for rival online advertising services to compete in the so-called ‘ad tech stack’ – to the detriment of competing providers of advertising technology services, advertisers and online publishers.
The investigation will examine whether Google is distorting competition by restricting access by third parties to user data for advertising purposes on websites and apps, while reserving such data for its own use.
Online advertising services is at the heart of how Google and publishers monetise online services. Google collects data to be used for targeted advertising purposes, it sells advertising space and it also acts as an online advertising intermediary.
“Google is present at almost all levels of the supply chain for online display advertising,” said EC vice-president Margrethe Vestager: “We are concerned that Google has made it harder for rival online advertising services to compete in the so-called ad tech stack. A level playing field is of the essence for everyone in the supply chain. Fair competition is important – both for advertisers to reach consumers on publishers’ sites and for publishers to sell their space to advertisers, to generate revenues and funding for content. We will also be looking at Google’s policies on user tracking to make sure they are in line with fair competition.”
Many publishers rely on online display advertising to fund free online content for consumers. In 2019, display advertising spending in the EU was estimated to be approximately 20 billion. Google provides several advertising technology services that intermediate between advertisers and publishers in order to display ads on web sites or mobile apps.
The Commission’s investigation will focus on display advertising where Google offers a number of services both to advertisers and publishers. As part of its in-depth investigation, the Commission will in particular examine:
- The obligation to use Google’s services Display & Video 360 (‘DV360’) and/or Google Ads to purchase online display advertisements on YouTube.
- The obligation to use Google Ad Manager to serve online display advertisements on YouTube, and potential restrictions placed by Google on the way in which services competing with Google Ad Manager are able to serve online display advertisements on YouTube.
- The apparent favouring of Google’s ad exchange “AdX” by DV360 and/or Google Ads and the potential favouring of DV360 and/or Google Ads by AdX.
- The restrictions placed by Google on the ability of third parties, such as advertisers, publishers or competing online display advertising intermediaries, to access data about user identity or user behaviour which is available to Google’s own advertising intermediation services, including the Doubleclick ID.
- Google’s announced plans to prohibit the placement of third party ‘cookies’ on Chrome and replace them with the “Privacy Sandbox” set of tools, including the effects on online display advertising and online display advertising intermediation markets.
- Google’s announced plans to stop making the advertising identifier available to third parties on Android smart mobile devices when a user opts out of personalised advertising, and the effects on online display advertising and online display advertising intermediation markets.
If proven, the practices under investigation may breach EU competition rules on anticompetitive agreements between companies (Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU)) and/or on the abuse of a dominant position (Articles 102 TFEU).
The Commission says it will take into account the need to protect user privacy, in accordance with EU laws in this respect, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Competition law and data protection laws must work hand in hand to ensure that display advertising markets operate on a level playing field in which all market participants protect user privacy in the same manner.
The Commission, which will carry out its in-depth investigation ‘as a matter of priority’, stresses that the opening of a formal investigation does not prejudge its outcome.
More information on this investigation will be available on the Commission’s competition website, in the public case register under the case number AT.40670.
