European Commission Have been announced Violations of EU antitrust laws and “competition in the advertising technology industry distorts competition”, which would fine 2.95 billion euros, or about $3.5 billion. Decide the following Starting from early 2025, a U.S. federal judge concluded that Google maintained a monopoly in online advertising technology.
Google shows ads in search results, but it dominates as a software provider that online advertisers and publishers want to sell ad spaces and place ads. The committee’s main problem is that Google’s ad buying tools (Google ADS and DV 360) interact with its ad exchange software (ADX) and ad publisher server (DFP), which seems to be preferred. The commission said Google appears to be “notifying the ADX AD exchange before its competitors’ best bid value, and it must beat the auction.” It also found that “Google Advertising avoids competing for advertising exchanges and bids primarily on ADX”, maintaining Google’s ad exchange dominance even if the alternative is a better option for advertisers.
The committee is providing Google with 60 days to share how it plans to resolve these issues or face “appropriate remedies” that violate antitrust laws. This may just be good, but it may also include the forced sale of Google’s ADTECH business.
Lee-Anne Mulholland, Google’s global head of regulatory affairs, shared that the company will appeal the decision in the following statement provided to Engadget:
“The European Commission’s decision on our advertising technology services is wrong and we will appeal. It imposes unreasonable fines that require changing thousands of European businesses, which will make it harder for them to make money. There is no anti-competitive service to advertising buyers and sellers, and there are more alternatives to our services than ever before.”
$3.5 billion is a staggering amount of money, but technically that is not the most Google has been charged for violating EU law. In 2018, the company was Used to force mobile network operators to preinstall Google apps on their phones. Although Google has been under increasing scrutiny in its business practices over the past decade, so far it has not faced many structural remedies for so-called anti-competitive behavior.
For example, a U.S. court believes that Google is In 2024, but the judge The company doesn’t have to sell Chrome or stop payments to make Google the default search engine for iPhone. Historically, EU regulators have been more durable than their U.S. counterparts, and the European Commission is It remains to be seen whether there is any penalty that actually shocks the company.
