The European Union is interested in a secret agreement between Google and Facebook’s parent company, Meta, around online advertising. The agreement between the two groups would have violated competition rules.
The European Commission and the UK Competition and Markets Authority fear that Google and Meta (Facebook) have manipulated online advertising markets.
Today we have opened an investigation into the #JediBlue agreement between @Google & @Meta. The aim may have been to target ads technology competing with Google, trying to weaken it and exclude it from displaying ads on publisher’s websites & apps. https://t.co/dqemQ2DcXm
— Margrethe Vestager (@vestager) March 11, 2022
The deal between the two internet giants is already under investigation in the US, in an antitrust lawsuit against Google by the state of Texas, along with 14 other US states and Porto. Rico. This deal dates back to 2018 and is known as Jedi Blue.
What is the agreement Jedi Blue ?
Google reportedly dissuaded Facebook from launching competitive services to its advertising tools, particularly in Google’s Open Bidding program. In addition, Google would have put in place a special agreement to encourage Facebook to integrate the famous Google program.
The objective of the European Commission is to examine the scope of this agreement and whether this decision ended up concentrating the advertising market, to the detriment of other competitors, publishers and therefore consumers.
Google strongly disputes the first conclusions of the American, European and British regulators. The American company does not dispute the existence of the agreement as such, but according to it it is there to “ promote competition and [est] publicly documented. “.
First, the name Jedi Blue would come from GooglersGoogle employees, who described the process of deterring some advertisers as the spirit Jedifrom Star Wars.
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