Google ad biz shenanigans smacked down by French competition regulators
- Reference: 1623154508
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/06/08/google_ad_biz_told_non/
- Source link:
[1]Publishing the decision , the Autorité de la concurrence ruled that Google granted preferential treatment to its own proprietary technologies offered under its Google Ad Manager brand.
This was “to the detriment of its competitors and publishers,” the French regulator said.
[2]
Isabelle de Silva, the Autorité de la concurrence president, said the ruling was significant because it was “the first decision in the world to look into complex algorithmic auctions processes through which online display advertising works”.
[3]
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She went on:
"The particularly rapid investigation revealed processes by which Google, building on its considerable dominance in ad servers for websites and applications, outperformed its competitors on both ad servers and SSP platforms.
“These very serious practices penalised competition in the emerging online advertising market, and allowed Google not only to maintain but also to increase its dominant position.
“This sanction and these commitments will make it possible to re-establish a level playing field for all players, and the ability for publishers to make the most of their advertising space."
The investigation was originally triggered by a complaint lodged by News Corp Inc, Le Figaro group and the Rossel La Voix group.
[5]Google, Facebook, Chaos Computer Club join forces to oppose German state spyware
[6]South Korean regulator to probe in-app payments, creates new 'team' to look into digital ads
[7]Report commissioned by Google says Google isn't to blame for the death of print news
[8]G7 nations aim for global 15 per cent tax on big tech and bin digital services taxes
Responding to the ruling, Google said it plans to make some “changes to our ad technology.”
[9]Writing in a blog published yesterday , Maria Gomri, legal director at Google France, noted the company was “committed to working proactively with regulators everywhere to make improvements to our products”.
“That’s why, as part of an overall resolution of the FCA’s investigation, we have agreed on a set of commitments to make it easier for publishers to make use of data and use our tools with other ad technologies,” she wrote.
[10]
“We will be testing and developing these changes over the coming months before rolling them out more broadly, including some globally." ®
Get our [11]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.autoritedelaconcurrence.fr/en
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YL@UI6WerhECyqCWTPMlaAAAAFA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YL@UI6WerhECyqCWTPMlaAAAAFA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YL@UI6WerhECyqCWTPMlaAAAAFA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/07/in_brief_security/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/07/south_korea_creates_digital_ad_regulation_team/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/04/independent_report_commissioned_by_google/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/06/g7_15_percent_tax_on_big_tech_companies/
[9] https://blog.google/around-the-globe/google-europe/some-changes-our-ad-technology
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YL@UI6WerhECyqCWTPMlaAAAAFA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Would anyone expect less?
“granted preferential treatment to its own proprietary technologies offered under its Google Ad Manager brand.”
Isn't complaining about that a bit like complaining that Tesco puts their Finest baked beans in a more prominent position on the shelf than it puts those from Heinz? If you shop at Google, no surprise that the results give preferential treatment to Google products, surely? There are other search providers.
Re: Would anyone expect less?
"If you shop at Google, no surprise that the results give preferential treatment to Google products, surely? There are other search providers."
Right you are. I won't bother listing them; you can AltaVista them for yourself.
Does anyone know details?
Usually, I'm able to understand some of what the issue is, like at this point Google uses that data, or advantages this product that they own instead of that third-party product. Here it seems Google advantaged its technologies in the DFP (Doubleclick for Publishers) and SSP (Supply-Side Platform) servers, but that's all I can find in the ruling or anywhere else. The details of how Google will fix the issues are similarly vague.
Google seems to be taking these rulings in stride, though.
Ain't going to happen.
“This sanction and these commitments will make it possible to re-establish a level playing field for all players..."
Yeah, right!
€220m?
Google could find that down the back of the sofa and if you are gullible to believe that there won't be "great minds" working out ways to get round any controls and/or agreements placed on Google then I have a bridge you might be interested in.
Just business as usual with all the platitudes and false promises Google and their like bring out when ever anything like this happens.
Break 'em up and really put the shackles on their monopolistic tendencies.
If that happens all those lovely campaign contributions so freely offered and willingly accepted will vanish. And that would never do. So it will take a spine of steel and purity of heart and I don't see much of that in the politicians.round here.
I won't be holding my breath.
Death by a Thousand Nibbles?
Now if others would hit Chocolate Factory and the other Silly Valley scum with repeated bites they might reform once the total starts having a material impact on their profits; Wall Street will be outraged if they lose money.
Google's technologies will still receive preferential treatment
“That’s why, as part of an overall resolution of the FCA’s investigation, we have agreed on a set of commitments to make it easier for publishers to make use of data and use our tools with other ad technologies,” said Maria Gomri, legal director at Google.
Why thank you Google but I am not quite sure how that addresses this “Autorité de la concurrence ruled that Google granted preferential treatment to its own proprietary technologies offered under its Google Ad Manager brand.”
Seems to me “granted preferential treatment to its own proprietary technologies offered under its Google Ad Manager brand.” is still there but hey we have made a commitment to make it easier to now use technology that has preferential treatment.