BRUSSELS – Alphabet unit Google on Friday grew to become the goal of an antitrust criticism by the European Publishers Council over its digital promoting enterprise, which may probably strengthen EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager’s investigation into the problem.
Google made $147 billion in income from on-line adverts in 2020, greater than every other firm on the planet, with adverts together with search, YouTube and Gmail accounting for the majority of its general gross sales and earnings.
About 16% of its income got here from the corporate’s show or community enterprise, during which different media corporations use Google expertise to promote adverts on their web site and apps.
The European Fee opened an investigation in June into whether or not Google favors its personal on-line show promoting expertise providers to the detriment of rivals, advertisers and on-line publishers.
The publishers’ commerce physique, whose members embrace Axel Springer, Information UK, Conde Nast, Bonnier Information and Editorial Prensa Iberica, took its grievance to the European Fee, alleging Google has an adtech stranglehold over press publishers.
“It’s excessive time for the European Fee to impose measures on Google that really change, not simply problem, its conduct,” EPC Chairman Christian Van Thillo mentioned in a press release.
“Google has achieved end-to-end management of the advert tech worth chain, boasting market shares as excessive as 90-100% in segments of the advert tech chain,” he mentioned.
Vestager, who has fined Google greater than 8 billion euros ($9.2 billion) lately for anti-competitive practices in three circumstances, final yr launched the investigation into Google’s digital promoting enterprise.
Google has mentioned it could interact constructively with the Fee.
($1 = 0.8714 euros) (Reporting by Foo Yun Chee. Enhancing by Jane Merriman)
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