Google hit with $3.5 billion EU fine (AP)
European Union regulators on Friday fined Google 2.95 billion euros ($3.5 billion) for breaching competition rules by favoring its own digital advertising services. The penalty marks the fourth antitrust fine the tech giant has faced in the EU.The European Commission, the bloc’s executive branch and top antitrust enforcer, also ordered Google to end its “self-preferencing practices” and take steps to prevent “conflicts of interest” along the advertising technology supply chain.Google said the EU decision was “wrong” and announced plans to appeal. “It imposes an unjustified fine and requires changes that will hurt thousands of European businesses by making it harder for them to make money,” Lee-Anne Mulholland, the company’s global head of regulatory affairs, said in a statement.Mulholland added, “There’s nothing anticompetitive in providing services for ad buyers and sellers, and there are more alternatives to our services than ever before.”
Background: Display ads and competition concerns
The European Commission began its investigation in June 2021 and found that Google “abused” its dominant positions in the ad-technology ecosystem. Regulators said the company favored its own online display advertising services at the expense of rival publishers, advertisers, and advertising technology services. Online display ads include banners and text that appear on websites and are personalized based on a user’s browsing history.The decision comes more than two years after the commission first announced antitrust charges. While the EU had previously threatened a forced breakup of Google, it has held off on that action for now.“The Commission has already signaled its preliminary view that only the divestment by Google of part of its services would address the situation of inherent conflicts of interest, but it first wishes to hear and assess Google’s proposal,” the commission said. Google has 60 days to respond, after which regulators could propose an “appropriate remedy.”
Canada and UK also probe Google Ads
Google is also facing antitrust scrutiny in the US, where prosecutors recently sought to force the company to sell its Chrome browser after a judge found it held an illegal monopoly in online search. The US justice department has asked for a sale of Google’s AdX and DFP ad platforms, tools central to both the EU and US cases.Authorities in Canada and Britain are likewise investigating the company’s digital advertising business.
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