EU investigates Google

LONDON — European Union regulators have launched a fresh antitrust investigation of Google, this time over whether the US tech giant is stifling competition in digital advertising technology.

The European Commission said on Tuesday that it has opened a formal investigation into whether Google violated the bloc’s competition rules by favouring its own online display advertising technology services at the expense of rival publishers, advertisers and advertising technology services.

The investigation underscores European concerns about Google’s dominance in the online advertising industry and whether it’s exploiting its data advantage to cement its position in the display ad market, which the EU Commission estimates is worth 20 billion euros ($F49 billion) annually.

This month, France’s antitrust authority fined Google more than 220 million euros ($F542 million) for abusing its dominance in online ads while in the UK it gave the competition watchdog a role overseeing its retirement of ad tracking “cookies” from the Chrome browser to resolve an investigation.

Online display ads are the banners and text that show up on websites such as newspaper home pages and are personalised based on an internet user’s browsing history. Search ads, in contrast, appear alongside search engine results and are based on keywords that users are looking for.

The commission, the EU’s executive arm and the bloc’s top antitrust enforcer, signalled it’s looking in particular at YouTube and whether Google is using the video sharing site’s dominant position to favour its own ad-buying services by imposing restrictions on rivals.

Google said competition in online ads has made them more affordable and relevant, cut fees and expanded options for publishers and advertisers.