The European Commission has launched a new investigation into Google to ascertain whether the company favours its own online advertising services over others, thereby breaching antitrust laws.
“Google collects data to be used for targeted advertising purposes, it sells advertising space and also acts as an online advertising intermediary,” European Commission Executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager said in a statement.
“So Google is present at almost all levels of the supply chain for online display advertising. We are concerned that Google has made it harder for rival online advertising services to compete in the so-called ad tech stack.”
A spokesperson for Google said of the alleged antitrust breach: “Thousands of European businesses use our advertising products to reach new customers and fund their websites every single day. They choose them because they’re competitive and effective.
“We will continue to engage constructively with the European Commission to answer their questions and demonstrate the benefits of our products to European businesses and consumers.”
