As soon as the European Commission investigates the new system under development by Google for antitrust violations

by Thomas Hawk

Google has been subject to investigation due to suspicion of violating antitrust laws in various practices, but the European Commission (EC) also announced on June 23, 2021 that the market for online advertising technology We have launched an investigation into the 'possibility of anti-competitive behavior.'

Antitrust: Google in the online advertising technology
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_3143

EU launches antitrust probe into Google Banning third-party cookies in Chrome | Ars Technica
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/06/eu-antitrust-regulators-launch-probe-into-googles-floc-plan/

Google Faces EU Antitrust Probe of Alleged Ad-Tech Abuses - WSJ
https://www.wsj.com/articles/google-faces-eu-antitrust-probe-of-alleged-ad-tech-abuses-11624355128

The investigation launched by EC is about so-called 'ad tech (ad distribution technology)'. While Google operates a platform that distributes digital advertisements, it also participates in the platform itself. The EC mainly investigates whether Google has restricted third-party access to user data used for advertising purposes on websites and apps, but whether Google has used it internally. He said he would.

“Google is present at almost every level of the online display advertising supply chain. The concern is that Google is making it harder for rivals to compete when it comes to so-called ad tech,” said EC's Margrethe Vestager. says Mr.

In addition, Google plans to abolish the existing advertising mechanism using third-party cookies in the near future and shift to a mechanism using an API called ' FLoC '. The move is discussed in the privacy sandbox proposal, but the EC intends to investigate Chrome, including plans for a privacy sandbox. FLoC is still a technology under development and testing, but many concerns have already been pointed out, and an investigation has been launched in the United States for antitrust violations.

A new system pointed out to be 'worst' under development by Google started investigation as soon as possible due to violation of antitrust law - GIGAZINE

In addition, Google plans to stop third-party use of advertising identifiers for Android apps when users opt out of personalized ads, the impact of which is also being investigated by the EC. .

Google acknowledges that ``we will gradually implement a function that can refuse to track advertisements from Android 12''-GIGAZINE

The specific survey points indicated by the EC are as follows.

- You must use Google Display & Video 360 (DV360) or Google Ads to purchase online display ads on YouTube.
- You must use Google Ad Manager to serve your inventory on YouTube. and potential restrictions imposed by Google on services that compete with Google Ad Manager from serving online display ads to YouTube.
- Apparent preference for DV360 and Google Ads for Google's exchange, AdX, and potential preference for DV360 and Google Ads for AdX.
・Google's restriction of 'access to data such as user behavior and identity' for third parties such as advertisers, publishers and advertising intermediaries.
The market impact of Chrome's move to deprecate third-party cookies and launch a set of tools called privacy sandboxes.
The market impact of plans to turn off identifiers for third parties when users opt out of personalized ads in Android apps.