Washington CNN —Google’s advertising business should be broken up, European Union officials said Wednesday, alleging that the tech giant’s involvement in multiple parts of the digital advertising supply chain creates “inherent conflicts of interest” that risk harming competition.
The formal accusations mark the latest antitrust challenge to Google over its sprawling ad tech business, following a lawsuit by the US Justice Department in January that also called for a breakup of the company.
For example, the commission claims, advertisers who used Google’s ad buying tools frequently had their purchases routed to AdX instead of to rival ad exchanges.
One proposed solution by the commission would spin off Google’s ad exchange and publisher tools from the ad-buying tools it provides to advertisers.
Google remains committed to creating value for our publisher and advertiser partners in this highly competitive sector,” Taylor said.
Persons:
”, Margrethe Vestager, Dan Taylor, ” Taylor
Organizations:
Washington CNN, European Union, Google, US Justice Department, EU, —, CNN
Locations:
AdX