(Finance) – The European Commission opened an investigation antitrust to evaluate whether a agreement between Google and Meta (the company that controls Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp) for online display advertising services may have violated EU competition rules. Also there Competition Market Authority (CMA) of the United Kingdom has launched its own investigation into the agreement between Google and Meta, with the two authorities intending to collaborate closely in this investigation. If proven, the practices under investigation may violate EU competition rules on anticompetitive agreements between companies and / or abuse of a dominant position.
“Many publishers rely on online display advertising to fund online content for consumers. Through the so-called” Jedi Blue “deal between Google and Meta, a competing technology to Google’s Open Bidding may have been targeted. to weaken it and exclude it from the market for the display of ads on eeb sites and publisher apps “, commented Margrethe Vestager, executive vice president of the EU Commission and responsible for competition policy.
“If confirmed by our investigation, this would limit and distort competition in the already concentrated market for advertising technology,” to the detriment of rival ad serving technologies, publishers and ultimately consumers“, he added.
Google provides advertising technology services that act as intermediaries between advertisers and publishers through the real-time auctioning of online display advertising space on websites or mobile apps, including through its “Open Bidding program”. Meta provides online display advertising services and, through its “Meta Audience Network”, participates in auctions for advertising space of third party publishers using the advertising technology services of Google and competitors.
The Commission’s investigation concerns a September 2018 deal, which Google code-named “Jedi Blue”, between Google and Meta for the participation of Meta’s Audience Network in Google’s Open Bidding program. The Commission fears that the deal could be part of efforts to foreclose ad technology services competing with Google’s Open Bidding program, and thereby restrict or distort competition in online display advertising markets, to the detriment of publishers and ultimately , of consumers.
The accusations of the EU Commission and the Competition Market Authority “are false“according to a Google spokesperson.” It is a publicly documented agreement and in favor of the competition, which allows Facebook Audience Network (Fan) to participate in our Open Bidding program, together with dozens of other companies “, underlines the spokesperson, indicating that the goal is” to increase the demand for publishers’ advertising space, so as to help publishers increase revenues “.