A secret deal struck between Google and Meta, the parent company
of Facebook, is being investigated by antitrust regulators in the European
Union and Britain for potentially undermining competition in the
multibillion-dollar digital advertising market.
اضافة اعلان
The inquiry, which was announced Friday by the European
Commission and U.K. Competition and Markets Authority, is the latest effort to
scrutinize the business practices of the world’s largest technology companies.
The regulators said the investigation centered on a 2018 deal
first uncovered as part of a lawsuit against Google by 10 state attorneys
general in the United States. The U.S. investigation concluded that Google
reached an agreement, referred to internally as “Jedi Blue,” to limit how much
Facebook would compete for ad dollars with one of Google’s key services.
“If confirmed by our investigation, this would restrict and
distort competition in the already concentrated ad tech market, to the
detriment of rival ad serving technologies, publishers and ultimately
consumers,” Margrethe Vestager, the European Commission’s executive vice
president who oversees competition and digital policy, said in a statement.
Google and Meta said the agreement between the two companies was
not exclusive and that a similar arrangement is used by dozens of other
companies.
“The allegations made about this agreement are false,” Google
said in a statement.
Meta said the agreement was similar to what the company had with
other partners for digital advertising. “These business relationships enable
Meta to deliver more value to advertisers and publishers, resulting in better
outcomes for all,” the company said in a statement.
Announcing a formal investigation is one step in a process that
can take years to conclude.
The inquiry illustrates how regulators around the world are
ratcheting up pressure on tech companies that dominate the digital economy. The
outcome of the investigations, along with new laws being drafted in the
European Union and United States, could force major changes in how the
companies conduct business with app stores, e-commerce and digital advertising.
The European Commission, the executive arm of the 27-nation
bloc, has other investigations underway into Amazon, Apple and Google. British
regulators are investigating Apple’s App Store policies, Meta’s use of data and
mobile ecosystems controlled by Apple and Google.
The European Commission and British regulators pledged to
cooperate on the investigations, in what is one of the first major competition
cases in which the two government bodies have pledged to work together since
Britain exited the European Union in 2020.
Read More
Business
.jpg)
.jpg)
