The French Competition Authority charged Alphabet Inc’s (NASDAQ: GOOGL) Google with a $270 million fine on Monday for reaping unfair benefits from its dominance in online advertising.
The competition watchdog said that the U.S. tech giant has been treating its own services as a preference – a discrimination against rivals that stole from them and secured more business for itself in digital advertising.
Regulator’s president Isabelle de Silva’s comments
President of the French Competition Authority, Isabelle de Silva, said in her statement on Monday:
“These very serious practices have penalised competition in the emerging online advertising market, and have enabled Google not only to preserve but also to increase its dominant position. This sanction and these commitments will make it possible to re-establish a level playing field for all actors, and the ability of publishers to make the most of their advertising spaces.”
Recently, the EU and UK antitrust bodies also launched formal investigations into Facebook’s marketplace as well.
In response, Google said it will pay the fine to settle the antitrust suit and also commit to quitting ‘preferential treatment’ of its own services in the future. Announcing changes to the advertising technology, Google’s legal director in France, Maria Gomri, said in a blog post:
“We recognise the role that ad tech plays in supporting access to content and information, and we’re committed to working collaboratively with regulators and investing in new products and technologies that give publishers more choice and better results when using our platforms.”
News Corp, Le Figaro, and Rossel’s had complained against Google
The investigation into Google’s advertising technology stemmed from a complaint against the American multinational by News Corp (U.S. mass media company), Le Figaro (French newspaper), and Rossel (Belgian press group).
The news comes weeks after Google secured official approval for its mega campus in San Jose from the city officials. The “Downtown West” project will cover 80 acres of land, including 7.3 million square feet dedicated for office space and housing units.
Alphabet Inc jumped to $2,395 per share on market open on Monday and is currently exchanging hands at $2,387 per share. In comparison, the stock had started the year at a much lower $1,726 per share. The California-based conglomerate had performed fairly upbeat in the stock market last year with an annual gain of close to 30%. At the time of writing, Alphabet has a market cap of $1.62 trillion and a price to earnings ratio of 30.20.
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Wajeeh Khan
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