France fines Google $267 mn for abusing dominant position in ad tech space

Google has been hit by a €220 million ($267 million) fine by France’s competition regulatory body, Autorite de la Concurrence, for abusing its market leadership in the online ad tech space.

Following a complaint lodged against Google by News Corp, Belgian media group Rossel and French newspaper Le Figaro, France’s competition regulatory body carried out an investigation against the Internet giant. As per media reports, the investigation revealed that Google was giving preference to its own ad listing platform SSP AdX, which holds ad auctions, and its own advertising server. The investigation revealed the complex algorithm process by which Google was able to favour itself over the competing platforms.

Meanwhile, in a blog on June 7, 2021, Google announced some changes in its ad technology. In the blog, Google stated that, “Over the past two years, we have been working with the French Competition Authority (FCA) to answer their questions about our advertising technology, and more specifically about Google Ad Manager, our publisher platform.” It maintained, “Our ad tech tools are built to work with our partners and competitors alike – it’s why we share access to advertising data to support publisher monetization and why we provide access to more than 700 rival advertiser platforms and 80 publisher platforms across our products.”

Some of the changes that Google will be rolling out include:

Increased access to data

Google will work to create a solution that ensures that all buyers that a publisher works with, including those who participate in Header Bidding, can receive equal access to data related to outcomes from the Ad Manager auction. In particular, Google will be providing information around the “minimum bid to win” from previous auctions.

Increased flexibility 

Google will further increase the flexibility of Google Ad Manager to meet the evolving needs of its partners, including allowing them to set custom pricing rules for ads that are in sensitive categories and implementing product changes that improve interoperability between Ad Manager and third-party ad servers.

Affirming commitment to transparency

Google also reaffirmed its promise not to use data from other SSPs to optimise bids in its exchange in a way that other SSPs can’t reproduce. The Internet giant is also reaffirming its promise not to share any bid from any Ad Manager auction participants with any other auction participant prior to completion of the auction. Additionally, Google will give publishers at least three months’ notice for major changes requiring significant implementation effort that publishers must adopt, unless those are related to security or privacy protections, or are required by law.