In a complaint released Wednesday, E.U. competition regulators alleged that Google favors its own technology services to the detriment of competitors — an abuse of its dominant position in online ad sales.technology that enables data collection, ad buying and publishing simultaneously, E.U. regulators said, creating an inherent conflict of interest. Only a mandatory divestment of ad-tech services would solve the problem, they said.
“Google is present at almost all levels of the so-called adtech supply chain,” E.U. competition policy chief Margrethe Vestager wrote in a statement.She expressed concerns that the company may have used its market position to favor its own services. “Not only did this possibly harm Google’s competitors but also publishers’ interests, while also increasing advertisers’ costs,” Vestager said.
The E.U. case adds to Google’s regulatory headaches, as the company battles multiple antitrust cases around the globe. Regulators from Brussels to Washington have been escalating their scrutiny of the power and influence of large tech companies over the past few years, and Google’s vast empire of online ads, search and app stores have been squarely in their crosshairs.