The French antitrust regulator ordered Google to pay a fine of 220 million euros (about 19.5 billion rubles) for abuse of monopoly position in online advertising.
News Corp., French newspaper Le Figaro and Belgian media group Rossel La Voix filed a lawsuit against Google in 2019.
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An investigation by the French authorities revealed that the company was taking advantage of its leading position in the online advertising market, where some of its tools became almost indispensable for large publishers. In their opinion, Google promoted its own ad services to the detriment of competitors.
“The decision to fine Google is particularly significant because regulators are the first in the world to focus on the complex algorithmic auction processes on which the online advertising business depends,” said French competition chief Isabelle de Silva.
According to French press reports, Google proposed to resolve this issue by removing some obstacles for its competitors.
As part of an agreement reached with the French authorities, Alphabet, Google's parent company, has agreed to make changes to some of its online advertising services.
First but not last?
The agreement, while only binding in France, could be one of the first decisions in a wave of investigations or lawsuits against Google's advertising business.
In 2020, Google generated $ 147 billion in online advertising revenue, more than any other internet company.
In 2019, Google already got from the European antitrust regulator – the EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager fined the company 1.5 billion euros
In December 2019, the French competition agency fined Google € 150 million for abusing its dominant position in the search advertising market, claiming that the rules for operating Google's advertising platform were “opaque and difficult to understand” and were applied selectively or randomly. And in March of the same year, the European regulator ordered the company to pay a fine of 1.49 billion euros for the same sins.
The European antitrust authorities are generally partial to Google. In 2017, the European Commission fined Google 2.42 billion euros for violating EU antitrust laws. And the following year, the Internet giant was fined a record 4.34 billion euros for abusing the dominant position of Android devices.
Most of Google's sales come from search ads and ads on its YouTube platform. But last year, about $ 23 billion was spent on helping clients sell ads.
The antitrust authorities' attention is drawn to the complex relationships between divisions of companies, especially the algorithms used, which prioritize “their” results when searching. Some critics are calling for a dismemberment of Google and YouTube altogether.
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Google spokesman Leslie Pitterson did not comment on the deal earlier, but said the company's advertising technologies work with both Google partners and competitors.
Texas, backed by other US states, filed a similar lawsuit against Google in December 2020, accusing the company of violating antitrust laws in its online advertising business.
Similar allegations have also formed the basis of several lawsuits against the company in the United States, filed by several advertisers and competitors of Google.
