Tech giant Google is once again facing pressure from the European Union. This antitrust pressure is due to the advertising policies of the company.
This time, the European Publisher Council has made an antitrust allegation against Google. The complaint says that the tech giant favours its own advertising setup over its rival publishers or advertising companies. Two years back, in 2020, the parent company of Google, Alphabet Inc, was able to generate one hundred and forty-seven billion dollars in revenue. This figure of revenue was at the top in comparison to every company in the world. The advertisements that were displayed included Google’s Gmail, YouTube, and Google search.
The trade body of the European Publisher Council took this matter to the European Union and alleged that Google had a stranglehold on its rivals. The Chairman of the Publisher Council, Christian Van Thillo, asked the union to take serious actions against the company and to let go of these actions.
Christian Van further added that Google gets an end-to-end hold of the value chain coming from its advertising technology. As a result, the company is able to increase its market share by 90 to even 100 percent.
Margrethe Vestager, the European Commissioner for Competition, who previously fined the tech giant for eight billion euros over anti-competitive actions, has also initiated a thorough investigation against Google for its advertising business.
However, in its defence, the company stated that publishers are the ones getting benefit from the services being provided by Google through advertising tech.
A spokesperson for the company said that whenever a publisher uses Google for their advertisements, they get to take most of the revenue generated. And then the company pays out billions of dollars to their publisher annually.
It is still not clear if the pressure being exerted by the Publisher Council on the European Union will result in Google making drastic changes to its advertising policies, but it could help lower the possible fines that could be on their way.
Read next: A French Administrative Body States That Google Is Selling Citizen Data To US Intelligence Agencies Via Google Analytics
This time, the European Publisher Council has made an antitrust allegation against Google. The complaint says that the tech giant favours its own advertising setup over its rival publishers or advertising companies. Two years back, in 2020, the parent company of Google, Alphabet Inc, was able to generate one hundred and forty-seven billion dollars in revenue. This figure of revenue was at the top in comparison to every company in the world. The advertisements that were displayed included Google’s Gmail, YouTube, and Google search.
The trade body of the European Publisher Council took this matter to the European Union and alleged that Google had a stranglehold on its rivals. The Chairman of the Publisher Council, Christian Van Thillo, asked the union to take serious actions against the company and to let go of these actions.
Christian Van further added that Google gets an end-to-end hold of the value chain coming from its advertising technology. As a result, the company is able to increase its market share by 90 to even 100 percent.
Margrethe Vestager, the European Commissioner for Competition, who previously fined the tech giant for eight billion euros over anti-competitive actions, has also initiated a thorough investigation against Google for its advertising business.
However, in its defence, the company stated that publishers are the ones getting benefit from the services being provided by Google through advertising tech.
A spokesperson for the company said that whenever a publisher uses Google for their advertisements, they get to take most of the revenue generated. And then the company pays out billions of dollars to their publisher annually.
It is still not clear if the pressure being exerted by the Publisher Council on the European Union will result in Google making drastic changes to its advertising policies, but it could help lower the possible fines that could be on their way.
Read next: A French Administrative Body States That Google Is Selling Citizen Data To US Intelligence Agencies Via Google Analytics