Yahoo Finance UK watchdog may consider investigating Google over new ad tech
The UK's competition regulator said on Monday it will take a complaint against Google (GOOG), related to its market study into online platforms and the digital advertising market, “very seriously” and may open a formal investigation under the Competition Act.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) was responding to a note by a coalition of technology and publishing companies asking it to “delay a major technology release by Google that would cement its dominance of online business – and frustrate bids by regulators around the world to ensure fair competition on the internet.”
Marketers for an Open Web said that Google’s Chrome browser and Chromium developer tools, which it claims together run on about 72% of UK computers, are being modified to give Google “even greater control” over how publishers, advertisers and other digital businesses can operate on the web.
These changes, known as “Privacy Sandbox” are scheduled for full implementation in early 2021, the coalition said.
It called on the CMA to impose a legal block on Google to delay the launch of this technology, which will allegedly “remove login, advertising and other features from the open web and place them under Google’s control.”
However, Google told Yahoo Finance that Privacy Sandbox is an open initiative built in collaboration with the industry, to provide strong privacy for users while also supporting publishers.
"The ad-supported web is at risk if digital advertising practices don’t evolve to reflect people's changing expectations around how data is collected and used. That’s why Google introduced the Privacy Sandbox,” the company said in a statement.
It added that the company believes in the importance of an ad-supported web and that as the industry responds to privacy regulations and third parties, it wants to ensure that users continue to enjoy access to free content without sacrificing their privacy or autonomy.
The CMA said it will assess the coalition’s complaint and may open an investigation into the matter. It added that “if the urgency of the concerns requires us to intervene swiftly, we will also assess whether to impose interim measures to order the suspension of any suspected anti-competitive conduct pending the outcome of a full investigation.”
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This could involve requiring Google to pause its Privacy Sandbox plans while any investigation was underway, though no decisions have been made yet.
The CMA had launched the market study back in July 2019 to assess potential sources of harm to consumers.
In July 2020, it published the final report of the market study and recommended that the government introduce a pro-competition regulatory regime to tackle Google and Facebook’s (FB) market power.
“By the end of this year, the CMA will advise government on how a new regulatory regime for digital markets should be designed. As the same time, the CMA will continue using its existing powers to their fullest extent, as it is considering here, in order to tackle possible anti-competitive behaviour,” it had said.
Earlier this month, the Turkish Competition Board fined Google $26m (£19.48m) after ruling it was abusing its market dominance.
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