Alphabet’s Google has settled a French advertising antitrust case for 220 million euros ($268 million).
France’s Autorite de la Concurrence, the country’s competition authority, said the fine was due to “an abuse of a dominant position” that the digital giant used to favor its own services in terms of advertising. It also accepted commitments from Google, including promises to make it easier for competitors to use its online advertising tools, that are binding in the country for three years.
The French competition regulator had alleged that the firm’s DoubleClick for Publishers, used by online publishers to sell ad space, gave Google’s online ad auction unit AdX an undue advantage, including because of providing information about rival bids. The tech giant has in the past said that its ad-tech tools work with competitors’ products and that it regularly updates them.
The commitments under the settlement are only binding in France, but The Wall Street Journal reported that they could become a template for how Google resolves similar cases in other countries.
European countries and the European Union have stepped up their probes of tech giants’ ad businesses. Last week, the EU and the U.K. unveiled formal antitrust investigations into Facebook’s Marketplace classifieds service, with Britain also investigating its online dating service. The probes of the social media giant, led by CEO Mark Zuckerberg, were announced on Friday by the European Commission, the EU’s antitrust arm, and Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority.
