French Antitrust Regulator Slaps $268 Million Fine on Google

The French antitrust regulator has fined Google €220 million ($268 million) for abusing its dominant posture in the on the internet promoting market.

The wonderful, which Google has not disputed, was levied since the tech huge favored its very own Google Advertisement Manager systems.

This put competitors — such as publishers Information Corp, Le Figaro group and the Rossel La Voix group, who brought the initial grievance — at a disadvantage, according to the Autorité de la concurrence.

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The proprietary systems in dilemma were being the DFP advertisement server — which allows site and application publishers to sell their advertising area — and the SSP AdX revenue system — which allows publishers to promote impressions to advertisers.

Autorité de la concurrence president, Isabelle de Silva, argued that this investigation was the 1st to glance into the algorithmic processes by which on the web display promoting works.

“The notably swift investigation disclosed procedures by which Google, making on its substantial dominance in advertisement servers for web-sites and applications, outperformed its competition on each advertisement servers and SSP platforms,” she included.

“These quite major practices penalized levels of competition in the rising on-line advertising sector, and authorized Google not only to manage but also to improve its dominant situation. This sanction and these commitments will make it feasible to re-create a degree enjoying subject for all gamers, and the potential for publishers to make the most of their promoting area.”

Google France authorized director, Maria Gomri, claimed the firm experienced “agreed on a established of commitments to make it simpler for publishers to make use of data and use our instruments with other advertisement technologies.”

These will be tested and made in excess of the coming months, with some adjustments set to be rolled out globally, she included.

Google has been on the obtaining finish of various fines in Europe in excess of latest a long time, most notably a $1.7 billion antitrust penalty from the European Fee in 2019 — once more for abusing its dominant place in the on the internet advertising and marketing market.

The tech behemoth was also just one of the initially to obtain a key GDPR good, when the French regulator CNIL imposed a €50 million penalty for failing to notify customers about how their information is utilized.