The European Council of Publishers (EPC) on Friday filed a complaint with the European Commission against Google’s digital advertising business.
Google earned about 147 billion dollars from online advertising in 2020, more than any other company. The revenue from search engines, YouTube, and Gmail advertising is higher.
Alphabet, Google’s parent company, derives 16 percent of its total revenue from its network business, which uses AdSense to sell ads to other media companies and its website and app.
The European Publishers Council, which has filed complaints against Google with the European Commission, includes media outlets including Axel Springer, News UK, CondNast, Bonnier News, and Presa Iberica. They allege that due to Google’s technology, the press and publishers have been completely taken over by Google.
Christian Van Thilo, chairman of the publishing council, said it was time for the European Commission to make a decision that would actually change Google. He says Google has a bottom-up position in the value chain of advertising technology.
EU antitrust chief Margaret Westerwelle has fined Google $9.2 billion in recent years in a series of anti-competitive lawsuits.
After repeated complaints, he launched an investigation into Google’s digital advertising business last year. A Google spokeswoman claims that Google pays billions of dollars directly to publisher partners on its ad network each year.
The UK has accepted Google’s revised proposal
The UK’s competition regulatory body has approved a revised proposal by Google to ban third-party cookies used by advertisers to track Internet users.
Google says it is working to block third-party cookies to protect users’ privacy. Other players in the $250 billion global digital advertising industry say banning third-party cookies could affect them.
Karuna Thapa
