European Commissioner for Adapting to the Digital Age – Executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager speaks to the media during a virtual press conference at the European Commission headquarters in Berlaymont in Brussels, Belgium, November 26, 2020.
Thierry Monas | Getty Images
The European Union on Wednesday accused Google of violating antitrust rules on advertising technology, known as adtech, and may seek to break up parts of the tech giant to allay EU concerns.
The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, has drawn preliminary conclusions that Google dominates the European market in ad servers and programmatic ad-buying tools for publishers. The committee also said Google has abused this dominant position since at least 2014.
Alphabet, Google’s parent company, will now have the opportunity to read the concerns raised by the committee and defend its position in writing, and has requested an oral hearing for their comments.
“The Commission’s preliminary view is therefore that only Google’s forced divestiture of some of its services can resolve its competition concerns,” EU competition chief Margrethe Vestager said in a statement.
“(Google) collects user data, sells ad space, and acts as an intermediary for online advertising. So, Google is present at almost every level of the so-called ad tech supply chain,” she added. “Our initial concern is that Google may use its market position to favor its own intermediary services. This may not only harm Google’s competitors, but also may harm the interests of publishers, while increasing costs for advertisers. If confirmed, Google’s practice would be illegal. Our rules of the game,”