 "Google used anti-competitive tactics for ad biz, abused dominance to hurt rivals: UK watchdog")
Britain’s competition regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), on Friday (September 6) accused Google of using anti-competitive practices in the online advertising sector, according to provisional findings from an investigation.
The CMA said Google is exploiting its dominance in open-display ad tech. “The CMA has provisionally found that Google is using anti-competitive practices in open-display ad tech, which it believes could be harming thousands of UK publishers and advertisers,” the regulator said.
CMA’s concerns about Google
The watchdog brought up concerns about Google’s control in three key areas of the market: publisher ad servers, ad exchanges, and advertiser buying tools. It said Google is using this dominance to favour its own services, giving itself an unfair advantage over competitors.
The CMA also raised issues with Google’s ad exchange, AdX, accusing the tech giant of giving preferential access to advertisers using its Google Ads platform and manipulating bids to increase their value in AdX’s auction compared to rival exchanges.
The investigation follows a 2019 study into digital advertising, which revealed that advertisers were spending about £1.8 billion annually on open-display ads targeting UK consumers via websites and apps.
Google’s response
In response to the CMA, Google has said it “remains committed to creating value for our publisher and advertiser partners in this highly competitive sector.”
Impact Shorts
More Shorts“The core of this case rests on flawed interpretations of the ad tech sector. We disagree with the CMA’s view and we will respond accordingly,” the tech giant said in a prepared statement.
The findings come as Google faces similar scrutiny from the US Department of Justice and the European Commission. Last month, Google lost a significant US antitrust case brought against its core search business that branded it a “monopolist, with potential remedies that could force the company to spin off parts of its operations.
In December, Google also lost a case brought by Epic Games, which accused it of excluding competitors from its Android app Play Store by charging excessive fees.
With inputs from agencies
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