European Commission slams Google for ‘abuse of dominant position’ in online advertising

Google gets caught by the collar. Brussels estimated on Wednesday June 14 that the American platform had “abused its dominant position” in online advertising display technologies, threatening the group to have to sell “part of its services” in this domain. The European Commission considers, “on a preliminary basis, that the company has breached EU antitrust rules by distorting competition in the advertising technology sector”according to a press release.

She blames Google “to favor its own online advertising display technology services over competing advertising technology service providers, advertisers and online publishers”. The European executive, policeman of competition in the EU, considers for the moment “that only the sale by Google of part of its services would make it possible to dismiss its concerns”.

The investigation, which was opened in 2021, is not over and the Mountain View group will be able to make its arguments heard. If there is sufficient evidence, Google could be fined up to 10% of its global annual revenue. “We disagree with the European Commission’s view and will respond accordingly”, immediately reacted the advertising vice-president of the group. Google has already been fined a total of 8 billion euros in the EU in recent years for various anti-competitive practices.