Description

Issued statement of objections in combined investigation into Google's ad tech practices

On 6 September 2024, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) issued a statement of objections provisionally finding that Google has abused its dominant position in digital advertising, specifically in the "ad tech stack", the digital advertising technology sector that consisting of intermediaries facilitating the buying and selling of online advertising space. Google plays a key role in three parts of the ad tech stack chain, operating two ad buying tools and a publisher ad server, as well as the ad exchange AdX. The CMA's investigation suggests that Google has engaged in self-preferencing by, among other things, giving AdX preferential access to advertiser bids, manipulating bids to favour AdX, and granting AdX a "first refusal" in auctions for ad space. The CMA will consider representations from Google before reaching its final decision.

Original source

Scope

Policy Area
Competition
Policy Instrument
Unilateral conduct regulation
Regulated Economic Activity
online advertising provider
Implementation Level
national
Government Branch
executive
Government Body
competition authority

Complete timeline of this policy change

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2022-05-26
under deliberation

On 26 May 2022, the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced an investigation into Goog…

2023-03-10
under deliberation

On 10 March 2023, the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced that it was combining it…

2024-09-06
under investigation

On 6 September 2024, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) issued a statement of objections p…

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