Google dominates online advertising. The hypotheses of Brussels
The EU has opened an antitrust investigation against the Google group. It is the fourth major European investigation into the US giant. Online advertising guarantees the company nearly $ 147 billion in revenue
The European Union has formally opened an antitrust investigation against the Google group to see if it has abused its dominant position in the online advertising market and harmed competition. It is the fourth major European Google survey in less than five years.
WHAT VESTAGER SAID
Margrethe Vestager, Vice President of the European Commission and Commissioner for Competition, said that “online advertising services are at the heart of the world where Google and content creators monetize their online services. Google collects data to be used for targeted advertising purposes, sells advertising space and also acts as an intermediary in online advertising. So Google is present in almost all levels of the online display advertising chain ”.
“We fear,” Vestager continued, “that Google has made it harder for rival online advertising services to compete in the so-called ad technology stack. A level playing field is one of the essential things for everyone in the supply chain. Fair competition is important ”.
GOOGLE'S RESPONSE
Google responded with a statement, claiming that “thousands of European companies use our advertising products to reach new customers and finance their websites every day. They choose them because they are competitive and effective ". The company said it wanted to "demonstrate the benefits of our products to European businesses and consumers".
AREAS OF INVESTIGATION
According to the Commission's estimates, in 2019, expenditure on display advertising (i.e. advertising that appears on the pages of a website in the form of videos or banners) in the European Union amounted to around € 20 billion. Google provides a series of "brokerage" advertising services, which allow advertisers to meet content creators.
The European Commission has said it will look into the requirement to use Google Ads to buy display advertising on YouTube (the popular video platform owned by Google), and the requirement to use Google Ad Manager to serve ads instead. The Display & Video 360 service for the management of advertising campaigns is also in the sights of Brussels.
In addition to this, the antitrust investigation will focus on the restrictions imposed by Google on the possibility for third parties – advertisers, content creators, other advertising intermediaries – to access data on users in possession of Google's services. This is particularly valuable data for advertisers because it allows the web user to be shown "tailored" advertisements – in line with his interests and purchasing habits – and therefore potentially more effective.
Finally, the European Commission will examine the impact on the digital advertising market of Google's decision to delete third-party cookies from its Chrome browser and other user tracking settings on Android devices.
FINES IN GOOGLE
The antitrust investigation announced today is the latest in a series of attempts by Vestager to try and contain Google's market power. It has already imposed on the company fines totaling € 8.2 billion in three different antitrust cases, whose deterrence capacity is however deemed minimal, given the company's turnover (over 182 billion dollars in 2020).
In 2017, the Commission fined Google 2.7 billion for abuse in online shopping; in 2018 for 5 billion for abuse of the Android operating system ; in 2019 for 1.7 billion for abuse of dominant position in advertising.
The investigation opened today by the European Commission is similar to the one recently carried out by the French authorities, which resulted in a $ 270 million fine on Google and some changes to the company's advertising practices in France.
HOW MUCH ADVERTISING IS WORTH FOR GOOGLE
Last year, online advertising brought Google nearly $ 147 billion in revenue, far more than any other company in the world: Facebook, its closest competitor, is stopping at around 83 billion.
According to a research by eMarketer, cited by Reuters , this year Google could control 27 percent of global online advertising spending, with a 10 percent share in display advertising and 57 percent in search advertising. during searches).
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/google-indagine-antitrust-pubblicita-unione-europea/ on Tue, 22 Jun 2021 13:59:44 +0000.