Negotiate rather than fight toe to toe. This is what Google is trying to do in the investigation opened by the European Commission into its online advertising practices, deemed to be anti-competitive. The American giant has proposed to Brussels to allow other intermediaries to offer advertisers to place advertisements on its YouTube video platform, Reuters reported on Monday (June 13th). The obligation to go through Google tools to post on YouTube is precisely one of the criticisms raised by the Commissioner of Competition, Margrethe Vestager.
This case illustrates a trend: in recent months, the Gafam (Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft) have made more use of “commitments”. These proposals made by the company aim to find a compromise with the competition authorities. Their goal: to shorten the investigation and obtain a reduced sentence.
With that in mind, Amazon is looking for a ” OK ” to close investigations opened in 2019 by Brussels into its use of data, according to the Reuters agency and the website Politico. Accused of using information from its marketplace to promote its own products and customers, the world leader in online sales would have offered to share data with all sellers. Amazon would also be prepared to display a second offer, from a competing merchant, when one of its own products is selected in the Buy Box, supposed to present the most advantageous proposition.
These concessions have yet to be accepted by the authorities. The negotiations, secret, will take several months. Contacted, neither Amazon nor the European Commission commented.
It is at Google that the willingness to collaborate is most evident. The world leader in online research cites the example of Privacy Sandbox, the advertising targeting tool which should replace cookies by 2023: targeted in this respect by an investigation by the British Competition Authority, the company proposed – and had it validated, in February, after modification – measures to treat other actors fairly.
A pragmatic tactic
In June 2021, the group was already “entered into a transaction”, “without disputing the facts”, in an investigation into online advertising, the French Competition Authority had welcomed the French Competition Authority – which had nevertheless matched the concessions with a fine of 220 million euros. The search engine also offered “commitments” to the authority in the case opposing it to press publishers on neighboring rights remunerating extracts from articles.
You have 42.05% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.