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France’s competition watchdog fines Google $268 million for “abuse of power”

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France’s competition watchdog fined Google 220 million euros ($268 million) on Monday for abusing its dominant position in online advertising.

France’s antitrust agency said on Monday the US tech giant used its dominance over ad sales and purchasing on its platforms to distort the market to its own advantage, hurting publishers such as News Corp. “Google took advantage of its vertical integration to skew the process,” Isabelle de Silva, who heads France’s Autorité de la concurrence, said at a Paris press conference on Monday. She described Google’s behavior as “particularly serious.”

The French authority criticised Google for favouring its DoubleClick for Publishers ad server, where publishers sell ad space, and its AdX or DoubleClick Ad Exchange, where publishers sell page impressions to advertisers. De Silva said that Google intends to apply some of these commitments at a worldwide level. Google said in a blog post it’s “committed to working proactively with regulators everywhere to make improvements to our products.”

The company said it will be testing and developing behavioral changes agreed as part of the settlement over the coming months. The case sprang from a study the French Competition Authority published in 2018 after conducting a sector inquiry into online advertising, which put the spotlight on the power of Google and Facebook. News Corp., the group behind French newspaper Le Figaro and media firm Groupe Rossel la Voix SA followed up with a complaint to regulators the following year.

ARTICLE: PAUL MURDOCH
MANAGING EDITOR: CARSON CHOATE
PHOTO CREDITS: BLOOMBERG

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Paul Murdoch

Paul, 37, is from Scotland in the UK, but currently lives and works in Bangkok. Paul has worked in different industries such as telemarketing, retail, hospitality, farming, insurance, and teaching, where he works now. He teaches at an all-girls High School in Bangkok. “It’s a lot of work, but I love my job.” Paul has an active interest in politics. His reason for writing for FBA is to offer people the facts and allow them to make up their own minds. Whilst he believes opinion columns have their place, it is also important that people can have accurate news with no bias.

Paul, 37, is from Scotland in the UK, but currently lives and works in Bangkok. Paul has worked in different industries such as telemarketing, retail, hospitality, farming, insurance, and teaching, where he works now. He teaches at an all-girls High School in Bangkok. “It’s a lot of work, but I love my job.” Paul has an active interest in politics. His reason for writing for FBA is to offer people the facts and allow them to make up their own minds. Whilst he believes opinion columns have their place, it is also important that people can have accurate news with no bias.

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