Close Menu
    Latest Category
    • Finance
    • Tech
    • EU Law
    • Energy
    • About
    • Contact
    EUbusiness.com | EU news, business and politicsEUbusiness.com | EU news, business and politics
    Login
    • EU News
    • Focus
    • Guides
    • Press
    • Jobs
    • Events
    • Directory
    EUbusiness.com | EU news, business and politicsEUbusiness.com | EU news, business and politics
    Home » Google in EU dock over abusive online ads practices

    Google in EU dock over abusive online ads practices

    npsBy nps15 June 2023 No Comments4 Mins Read
    — Filed under: Competition Consumer EU News Headline2 Internet
    Share
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Email
    Google in EU dock over abusive online ads practices

    Google search on laptop – Photo by Firmbee on Pixabay

    (BRUSSELS) – The EU Commission informed Google Wednesday of its preliminary view that the company breached EU antitrust rules by distorting competition in the advertising technology industry (‘adtech’).

    The EU executive takes issue with the way Google favours its own online display advertising technology services to the detriment of competing providers of advertising technology services, advertisers and online publishers.

    The flagship service of the US multinational tech company is its search engine Google Search. Its main source of revenue is online advertising: (i) it sells advertising space on its own websites and apps; and (ii) it intermediates between advertisers that want to place their ads online and publishers (i.e. third-party websites and apps) that can supply such space.

    Advertisers and publishers rely on the adtech industry’s digital tools for the placement of real time ads not linked to a search query, such as banner ads in websites of newspapers (‘display ads’). In particular, the adtech industry provides three digital tools: (i) publisher ad servers used by publishers to manage the advertising space on their websites and apps; (ii) ad buying tools used by advertisers to manage their automated advertising campaigns; and (iii) ad exchanges where publishers and advertisers meet in real time, typically via auctions, to buy and sell display adds.

    Google provides several adtech services that intermediate between advertisers and publishers in order to display ads on web sites or mobile apps. It operates (i) two ad buying tools – “Google Ads” and “DV 360”; (ii) a publisher ad server, “DoubleClick For Publishers, or DFP”; and (iii) an ad exchange, “AdX”.

    The Commission preliminarily finds that Google is dominant in the European Economic Area-wide markets: (i) for publisher ad servers with its service ‘DFP’; and (ii) for programmatic ad buying tools for the open web with its services ‘Google Ads’ and ‘DV360’.

    The Commission preliminarily finds that, since at least 2014, Google abused its dominant positions by:

    • Favouring its own ad exchange AdX in the ad selection auction run by its dominant publisher ad server DFP by, for example, informing AdX in advance of the value of the best bid from competitors which it had to beat to win the auction.
    • Favouring its ad exchange AdX in the way its ad buying tools Google Ads and DV360 place bids on ad exchanges. For example, Google Ads was avoiding competing ad exchanges and mainly placing bids on AdX, thus making it the most attractive ad exchange.

    The Commission is concerned that Google’s allegedly intentional conducts aimed at giving AdX a competitive advantage and may have foreclosed rival ad exchanges. This would have reinforced Google’s AdX central role in the adtech supply chain and Google’s ability to charge a high fee for its service.

    If confirmed, those conducts would infringe Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (‘TFEU’) that prohibits the abuse of a dominant market position.

    The Commission preliminarily finds that, in this particular case, a behavioural remedy is likely to be ineffective to prevent the risk that Google continues such self-preferencing conducts or engages in new ones. Google is active on both sides of the market with its publisher ad server and with its ad buying tools and holds a dominant position on both ends. Furthermore, it operates the largest ad exchange. This leads to a situation of inherent conflicts of interest for Google. The Commission’s preliminary view is therefore that only the mandatory divestment by Google of part of its services would address its competition concerns.

    The Commission stresses that sending a Statement of Objections does not prejudge the outcome of an investigation.

    More information on the investigation is available on the Commission’s competition website, in the public case register under case number AT.40670.

    Add A Comment
    Leave A Reply Cancel Reply

    You must be logged in to post a comment.

    nps
    • Website

    Related Content

    Sustainable finance - Image by Nattanan Kanchanaprat from Pixabay

    Brussels eases corporate sustainability reporting requirements

    Tochytskyi - Micallef - Ukraine Recovery Conference - Photo © European Union 2025

    EU offers support for Ukraine culture and heritage

    Euro - ECB-Photo by Mika Baumeister on Unsplash

    Poor GDP performance marks end of tough week for the Pound – Euro currency news daily

    Ukraine Recovery Conference - Photo © European Union 2025

    EU announces EUR 2.3 billion package for Ukraine recovery

    Ecommerce - Photo by AS Photography on Pexels

    Euro-Parliament moves to stop sub-standard products from outside EU

    Deforestation - Image by Robert Jones from Pixabay

    EUDR saga: Parliament votes to undermine enforcement and EU credibility

    Sponsor: WWF European Policy Office9 July 2025
    LATEST EU NEWS
    Sustainable finance - Image by Nattanan Kanchanaprat from Pixabay

    Brussels eases corporate sustainability reporting requirements

    11 July 2025
    Tochytskyi - Micallef - Ukraine Recovery Conference - Photo © European Union 2025

    EU offers support for Ukraine culture and heritage

    11 July 2025
    Euro - ECB-Photo by Mika Baumeister on Unsplash

    Poor GDP performance marks end of tough week for the Pound – Euro currency news daily

    11 July 2025
    Ukraine Recovery Conference - Photo © European Union 2025

    EU announces EUR 2.3 billion package for Ukraine recovery

    10 July 2025
    Ecommerce - Photo by AS Photography on Pexels

    Euro-Parliament moves to stop sub-standard products from outside EU

    10 July 2025

    Subscribe to EUbusiness Week

    Get the latest EU news

    CONTACT INFO

    • EUbusiness Ltd 117 High Street, Chesham Buckinghamshire, HP5 1DE United Kingdom
    • +44(0)20 8058 8232
    • service@eubusiness.com

    INFORMATION

    • About Us
    • Advertising
    • Contact Info

    Services

    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms
    • EU News

    SOCIAL MEDIA

    Facebook
    eubusiness.com © EUbusiness Ltd 2025

    Design and developed by : 

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.

    Sign In or Register

    Welcome Back!

    Login to your account below.

    Lost password?