Margrethe Vestager, the executive VP in charge of competition policy, noted that Google is present at almost all levels of the supply chain for online display advertising, collecting data to be used for targeted ad purposes, selling ad space and acting as an online ad intermediary.
"We are concerned that Google has made it harder for rival online advertising services to compete in the so-called ad tech stack. A level playing field is of the essence for everyone in the supply chain. Fair competition is important - both for advertisers to reach consumers on publishers' sites and for publishers to sell their space to advertisers, to generate revenues and funding for content. We will also be looking at Google's policies on user tracking to make sure they are in line with fair competition."
The investigation will focus on display advertising, where Google offers a number of services both to advertisers and publishers. The commission will particularly look at obligations imposed on partners and customers for Google services Display & Video 360 (DV360), Google Ads and its Ad Manager. The EC will also examine the restrictions placed by Google on the ability of third parties, such as advertisers, publishers or competing online display advertising intermediaries, to access data about user identity or user behaviour available to Google's own advertising intermediation services, including the Doubleclick ID.
The EC said it will also investigate Google's announced plans to prohibit the placement of third party ‘cookies' on Chrome and replace them with the “Privacy Sandbox” set of tools, as well as its plans to stop making the advertising identifier available to third parties on Android smart mobile devices when a user opts out of personalised advertising.
