France: Announced investigation into Google for alleged opaque and inconsistent advertisement rules

On 9 September 2015, the French Competition Authority (FCA) initiated an investigation into Google for allegedly applying opaque and inconsistent advertisement rules. The investigation was initiated through a complaint by Gibmedia, which had requested provisional measures. These were rejected, but the FCA decided to keep investigating the merits of the case. Google allegedly has advertisement rules in place, that are not only non-objective but also lack transparency and actively discriminate against competitors. As a consequence, Google may apply the rules in an inconsistent matter, harming both consumers and advertisers.