Google’s ad business violates antitrust laws, EU regulator says

Google’s advertising business violates antitrust laws, European regulators said Wednesday, adding to the ongoing competition woes for the tech giant. 

The European Commission’s preliminary review of Google found the company violated EU antitrust rules by distorting competition in the advertising technology industry by allegedly favoring its display advertising technology services in a way that is detrimental to competing advertising technology services, advertisers and online publishers. 

The commission alleged that for nearly a decade, Google favored its ad exchange AdX in the ad selection auction run by its dominant ad server DFP by informing AdX in advance of the value of the best bid from competitors to win the auction. 

The commission also alleged Google favored its ad exchange by avoiding competing ad exchanges and making its exchange the most attractive. 

“Our preliminary concern is that Google may have used its market position to favour its own intermediation services,” Margrethe Vestager, executive vice president of the European Commission, said in a statement. 

“Not only did this possibly harm Google’s competitors but also publishers’ interests, while also increasing advertisers’ costs. If confirmed, Google’s practices would be illegal under our competition rules,” she added. 

The EU’s allegation comes after the U.S. Department of Justice and a handful of states sued Google over its dominance in the digital ad space. The U.K.’s competition regulator is also investigating anti-competitive conduct by Google in the digital advertising market. 

Google pushed back on the claims in a blog post written by Google’s vice president of global ads Dan Taylor.

“Today’s Statement of Objections from the European Commission sets out claims that are not new and relate to a narrow part of our advertising business. It fails to recognize how advanced advertising technology helps merchants reach customers and grow their businesses — while lowering costs and expanding choices for consumers,” Taylor wrote. 

“The digital advertising market enjoys competitive pricing, lively innovation, and robust competition — helping advertisers, publishers, and consumers. We look forward to showing how our ad tech tools help make the internet open, and accessible — and how breaking them would diminish the availability of free, ad-supported content that benefits everyone,” Taylor added.

The company has previously pushed back on allegations raised in the U.S. over violating antitrust laws in the digital ad space.

Updated at 11:14 am.