France’s competition watchdog has reached a settlement with Google after the search giant was found guilty of abusing its dominant position in the advertising server market. The company will pay a EUR 220 million fine and will implement specific commitments to ensure future compliance, which form a binding part of the watchdog’s decision and must remain in place for a period of three years.
Google, which did not dispute the facts, was investigated following a complaint initially brought by three news publishers. The probe found that the company granted preferential treatment to proprietary technologies offered under the Google Ad Manager brand, both via the operation of its DFP ad server (which allows publishers of sites and applications to sell their advertising space), and its SSP AdX sales platform (which organises the auction process allowing publishers to sell their ad inventories to advertisers).
Google’s anti competitive practices penalised other players in the market on both the demand and supply sides, including the press groups at the origin of the initial complaint. The competition authority described this latest ruling as the first decision in the world to look into the complex algorithmic auctions processes used in the online display ad market.
The watchdog had already imposed a EUR 150 million fine on the company at the end of 2019, following a probe into the Google Ads service.
