France slaps Google with $166M antitrust fine for opaque and inconsistent ad rules – By Natasha Lomas (Techcrunch) / Dec 20 2019
France’s competition watchdog has slapped Google with a €150 million (~$166 million) fine after finding the tech giant abused its dominant position in the online search advertising market.
In a decision announced today — following a lengthy investigation into the online ad sector — the competition authority sanctioned Google for adopting what it describes as “opaque and difficult to understand” operating rules for its ad platform, Google Ads, and for applying them in “an unfair and random manner.”
The watchdog has ordered Google to clarify how it draws up rules for the operation of Google Ads and its procedures for suspending accounts. The tech giant will also have to put in place measures to prevent, detect and deal with violations of Google Ads rules.
A Google spokesman told TechCrunch the company will appeal the decision.
The decision — which comes hard on the heels of a market study report by the U.K.’s competition watchdog asking for views on whether Google should be broken up — relates to search ads which appear when a user of Google’s search engine searches for something and ads are served alongside organic search results.
More specifically, it relates to the rules Google applies to its Ads platform which set conditions under which advertisers can broadcast ads — rules the watchdog found to be confusing and inconsistently applied.
Continue to article: https://techcrunch.com/2019/12/20/france-slaps-google-with-166m-antitrust-fine-for-opaque-and-inconsistent-ad-rules/
