Google faces new EU antitrust charges for Ad tech abuses

The European Union is likely to announce the so-called statement of objections on Wednesday. This will mark another escalation of antitrust complaint by the EU against the search giant. Earlier, the EU antitrust watchdog had already imposed penalties totaling more than €8 billion on the American MNC.

The new charges will target the core of the Alphabet Inc. unit’s ad tech business model, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity. Google’s advertising business is by far its most successful, accounting for about 80% of its annual revenue. In 2022, its ad sales amounted to about $225 billion, the Bloomberg reported. 

Under EU rules, companies can face a fine of upto 10% of global sales for violating antitrust norms.  The companies have the right to defend themselves before and after fines are levied.

In 2021, the European Commission first opened a probe into Google’s ad tech practices. The commission has been examining how Google may have obstructed rivals’ access to user-data for online advertising. The EU commission is also probing the company may have ring-fenced data for its own use.

The Open Bidding program by Google and Meta Platforms was originally the part of the investigation, but was ditched in late 2022, but after Portuguese competition authority submitted new evidence in September 2022, the investigation was broadened.

The Google is also facing an antitrust probe in the UK. The competition authority probing the company’s ad-tech practices. The tech giant is also facing another litigation over its behavior in the US.

Google is continuing to fight its EU antitrust fines in the courts, including a landmark €4.34 billion penalty for how it runs its Android mobile operating system.

Updated: 12 Jun 2023, 11:46 PM IST