The British Competition Authority (CMA) has just announced the opening of a new investigation against Google, again for abuse of a dominant position. According to the organization, the Mountain View firm would have taken advantage of its monopoly to promote its advertising platform, to the detriment of Internet users’ access to information due to the increase in costs for press publishers.
Investigations against Google’s business practices are on the rise. European countries are attacking the web giant from all fronts which, after years of tranquility, now finds itself confronted with the legislation of many States. In the viewfinder, repeated abuse of its dominant position in several areas, which often leads to fines of several million euros.
This time, it is in the United Kingdom to open an investigation against the Mountain View firm, through the CMA, the body responsible for regulating competition in the British markets. In a press release, the organization announces that it is studying Google’s practices in terms of online advertising, and in particular their impact on access to information for Anglo-Saxon nationals.
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“Google already enjoys strong positions at many levels of ad technology,” explains the CMA in its press release, which allows it to “charge fees to both publishers and advertisers”. Indeed, its dominant position would offer Google the possibility of favoring its own advertising platform with advertisers, which “may reduce advertising revenue for press publishers”.
In fact, in order to reduce costs, editorial staff have no choice but to make their articles chargeable, or quite simply to reduce the quality of their articles. “It can also increase costs for advertisers which are then passed on to the prices of goods and services”, also specifies the CMA. With the opening of an investigation into a possible agreement between Google and Meta, this is the second simultaneous investigation into the latter’s advertising agencies.
Source: CMA