Monopolistic practices are common in the Internet giant.
The European Commission announced just a few days ago that it has opened a new antitrust investigation against the technology giant Google to determine if the US multinational is abusing its position in the market when it comes to digital advertising technologies on the Internet.
The community body has ensured that this investigation will assess whether Google has violated the competition rules of the European Union by favoring its own online advertising technology services in the supply chain known as advertising technology, to the detriment of other providers of this type of services, that is, from competitors and other advertisers.
Possible monopolistic practices
As the institution has announced, this investigation will focus on finding out if the company is harassing its competition by restricting third-party access to user data for advertising purposes on the websites you visit and the applications you use, while Google itself uses this data for its own benefit.
Online advertising services are the basis of how Google and advertisers monetize their services online. Google collects data for specific advertising purposes, sells advertising space, and acts as an intermediary for Internet advertising. Therefore, Google is present at almost every level of the online advertising supply chain. The European Commission is concerned that the US giant has made it difficult for its competitors' online advertising services to reach users under the same terms and conditions.
Millions of euros in advertising
According to data handled by the Commission, spending on digital advertising throughout the European Union during 2019 reached 20,000 million euros. In addition, Google, assure that every day thousands of European companies benefit from their advertising products to reach new customers and finance their websites, and that they choose Google because they are competitive and efficient. Therefore, they assure us, they will continue to collaborate constructively with the European Commission to be able to answer all their questions and demonstrate the benefits that their products bring to European companies and consumers.
However, accusations of possible monopolistic practices are nothing new. Earlier this summer, Google was already fined more than €200 million by France's competition watchdog, as the multinational was shown to have favored its own services in online advertising to the detriment of those of its competitors. more direct. The company said at the time that it agreed with some of the watchdog's recommendations and would implement changes to its policy over the next few months, but it has apparently done nothing.
The control and arbitration body of the European Union are also not new to pursuing this type of bad business practice. Since its creation, it has initiated numerous antitrust investigations that affect the most well-known technology giants for the alleged exploitation and improper use of their dominant position in the market and has imposed multiple sanctions on them.
