The European Commission (‘EC’) and Competition Market Authority (‘CMA’), UK commenced probe into a 2018 deal between Google and Meta (previously Facebook). The probe is aimed to explore if the deal could lead to dominance in digital advertising (“AdTech”). Concerned, that the agreement was meant to exclude AdTech services competing with Google’s ‘Open Bidding programme’, EU felt that it would distort competition in markets for AdTech. Commenting on the probe, EU Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition policy, said: “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.“
Strategic Consultant
