The European Commission has filed an official antitrust case against Google. The EC’s vice president, Margrethe Vestager, said Google has received a Statement of Objections from the Commission.
The European Commission said Wednesday that it had filed an official antitrust case against Google.
According to the Commission, the tech giant allegedly abused its dominant position in the advertising technology industry. It also suggested that Google had spun off its advertising business.
Margrethe Vestager, vice president of the European Commission, made the announcement on June 14.
She said, “Google has received a Statement of Objections from the Commission today. We are worried that Google may have broken the law by changing how competition works in the ad tech industry.”
According to Margrethe Vestager, the European Commission had proof that Google’s tools for marketers and publications were unfairly helping its own matchmaking service, AdX, in the online advertising market.
Margrethe Vestager said, “We see the risk that Google’s actions have messed up competition among ad exchanges. Instead of letting the best ad exchange win the race, the powerful Google ecosystem helped Google’s own exchange get a head start on all of its competitors.”
The preliminary investigation found that a behavioral fix is unlikely to work to stop Google from “self-referencing,” the commission said in a statement. Instead, Google would be asked to break up the business.
“The European Commission’s preliminary view is, therefore, that the only way to fix its competition concerns is for Google to be forced to give up some of its services,” it said.
The antitrust process, which is going after Google’s main source of income, gives the company a chance to reply in writing to the complaints. If it is found to have broken EU trade rules, it could have to pay a fine of up to 10% of its total global sales.
