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Three media groups – News Corp, French daily Le Figaro and Belgium’s Groupe Rossel accused multinational tech company of having a monopoly over online ad sales. France’s competition regulatory body, today, fined Google 220 million euros. It found out that Google had abused its dominant market position for placing online ads. This is the latest move by European authorities to take tougher stances against US tech giants.
The penalty comes as a part of a settlement that was reached between Google and three media groups – News Corp, Daily Le Figaro and Groupe Rossel. The Autorite de la Concurrence stated that Google gave preference to its own ad auction service AdX and Doubleclick Ad Exchange which is a real-time auction platform. Clients using the rival platforms were paying more than those who were using Google’s services.
Google said that it did not contest its findings and has committed itself to operational changes.
The President of The Autorite de la Concurrence, Isabelle de Silva, said in an official statement, “This is the first ruling in the world that scrutinizes the complex algorithmic processes involved in online advertisements.”
Since regroup under Google Ad Manager brand, clients have realised that they have been paying more to put an ad on internet sites in comparison from those who use Google’s service.