New problems for Google – Why enter Britain’s microscope

Alphabet Google abuses its dominant position in advertising technology, warned the UK antitrust agency, in a move that could pave the way for heavy fines and a mandate to change one of the most lucrative businesses of the technological giant, as Bloomberg reports. The Competition and Markets Authority stated that Google uses its dominance in technological advertising to give priority to its own services and potentially harms thousands of publishers and advertisers of the United Kingdom.

Google has long held a key position through which it can collect data about users, allowing advertisers to target advertisements to them. It also sells advertising space and provides the technology that allows advertisers to find publishers to sell their space. Using its own algorithms, Google automatically calculates and offers advertising space and prices to advertisers and publishers, as a user clicks on a website. Online advertising is Alphabet’s most profitable business, creating about $225 billion or about 80% of total revenue in 2022.

” It is so important that publishers and advertisers allow this free content to benefit from effective competition and have a fair deal when purchasing or selling digital advertising space,” said Juliette Enser, interim executive executive director of CMA.

Google responded to CMA’s findings by saying they were based on “wrong interpretations of the advertising technology sector”. Dan Taylor, a Google VP of Global Ads, said he disagrees with the findings and will respond accordingly.

EU regulators have also criticised Google’s dominance in technological advertising. Last year she filed charges against antitrust legislation against the company for favoring her own advertising exchange program against her opponents and strengthening Google’s central role in the advertising technology supply chain. Basically, the European Commission stated in the July 2023 mandate that a possible mandate for Google to implement behavioural corrective measures may not be sufficient to correct abusive behaviour, possibly opening the way for an order against Google to separate its advertising technology activities from its core services.

Separately, the U.S. Department of Justice will face Google in a trial in September, calling for the disbandment of the giant’s advertising technology business for alleged illegal monopolise. The Ministry of Justice claims Google’s dominance in advertising technology allows her to hold at least $0.30 of every dollar advertisers spend through her online advertising tools. If any infringement is found by the CMA, it has the power to fine 10% of a company’s global revenue. CMA says it will take into account any feedback from Google before any final decision is taken and that the decision will be made by a separate committee from the group that made the preliminary investigation.