European regulators charge Google with breaching antitrust laws

Google has been found to have breached European Union antitrust rules through its advertising technology, according to the European Commission.

In a statement, the regulatory body said it "takes issue" with the search giant giving preference to its own display advertising technology. It went on to say that Google has a dominant position in Europe for its publisher ad servers and for programmatic ad buying tools, effectively the technology used to buy, sell and serve online display advertising.

During a news conference Wednesday to discuss its findings, EU Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager said, “Should the Commission conclude that Google acted in an illegal manner, it might require Google to divest part of its services.”

Travel companies spend billions of dollars each year in advertising, with much of that going to performance marketing on Google. In 2022, the total combined marketing spend by Expedia Group, Booking Holdings, Airbnb and Trip.com Group was more than $14 billion.

The EU commission said it has found Google has abused its position "since at least 2014" by "favoring its own ad exchange AdX in the ad selection auction run by its dominant publisher ad server DFP by, for example, informing AdX in advance of the value of the best bid from competitors which it had to beat to win the auction."

Google, which has been informed of the commission's findings, now has the right to present its own views on the matter. After that, the European lawmaker can decide to levy a fine of 10% of the company's annual turnover if it has enough evidence that antitrust laws have been broken.

The EU regulators opened their investigation into Google's practices in June 2021.

The United States Justice Department filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google in October 2020 also claiming that the company had abused its dominant position in search and advertising to stifle competition.

At the time, a Google spokesperson said: "Today’s lawsuit by the Department of Justice is deeply flawed. People use Google because they choose to — not because they're forced to or because they can't find alternatives." 

Industry observers also explored the potential impact of the case on travel, including new opportunities for digital marketers.

Google has also been accused of holding a dominant position in search, with the commission asked by travel companies in late 2020 to enforce a decision from 2017 to fine the company €2.42 billion.

In April 2023, the regulator announced it had fined Google the sum for abusing its position in search.