The European Commission has fined Google €2.95 billion for violating EU antitrust rules by distorting competition in the advertising technology ("adtech") sector. The Commission announced this in a statement. Google was ordered to end self-preferential practices and implement measures to eliminate inherent conflicts of interest along the adtech supply chain.

"The European Commission's decision on our ad technology services is wrong, and we will appeal," Lee-Anne Mulholland, Google's vice president and global head of regulatory affairs, said in a statement. "It imposes an unjustified fine and requires changes that will harm thousands of European businesses, making it harder for them to generate profits. There is nothing anti-competitive about providing services to ad buyers and sellers, and there are more alternatives to our services than ever before."

According to the Commission, Google distorted competition by favoring its own online display advertising technology services to the detriment of competing ad technology providers, advertisers, and online publishers . The Berlaymont opened the investigation in June 2021 and two years later, in June 2023, sent Google a statement of objections, to which the company responded in December 2023. Specifically, the Commission's investigation found that Google holds a dominant position in the market for ad servers for publishers with its "DoubleClick For Publishers" service; and in the market for programmatic ad buying tools for the open web with its "Google Ads" and "DV360" services.

The Berlaymont found that, at least between 2014 and today, Google has abused these dominant positions, violating Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, by favoring its own ad exchange AdX in the ad selection process managed by its dominant ad server DFP, as well as in the way its ad buying tools Google Ads and DV360 place bids on ad exchanges. The EU Antitrust Authority found that Google's conduct was intentionally aimed at giving AdX a competitive advantage by strengthening its role in the adtech supply chain . The Commission ordered Google to end these self-preferential practices and implement measures to resolve its inherent conflicts of interest along the adtech supply chain.

According to Google, this case concerns its third-party advertising business, not search ads. "While it represents a limited part of our business," Google says, "this technology helps publishers generate revenue by enabling advertisers to run ads on their websites, apps, and videos, in turn facilitating access to a wide range of online content. The European Commission's investigation is based on misinterpretations of the highly competitive and rapidly evolving advertising technology industry . This unjustified fine is just another example of Europe's disproportionate enforcement of laws against US companies."

(Unioneonline)

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