European Union: Announced investigation into Google for alleged abusive online advertising practices

On 14 July 2016, the European Commission issued a Statement of Objections to Google regarding Google's alleged abuse of dominance regarding Google AdSense. Specifically, Google allegedly required its partners to exclusively use Google AdSense and place Google's advertisements above others. Google allegedly also prevented third-party websites from placing advertisements on its websites by implementing restrictive contractual clauses and generally limiting competitors' adverts.