Google To Change Advertising Practices After Incurring $268m Fine In France

Google has agreed to change its global advertising policies after the tech giant was fined 220 million euros ($268 million) by the French Competition Watchdog on Monday.

The French competition regulator said Google abused its dominance in the online advertising industry by unfairly sending business to its own services and discriminating against their competitors.

This is the first time the company has agreed to effect changes to its massive advertising business, which brings in the lion’s share of its revenue.

“The decision to sanction Google is of particular significance because it’s the first decision in the world focusing on the complex algorithmic auction processes on which the online ad business relies,” said France’s antitrust chief Isabelle de Silva.

The investigation by the French Competion Watchdog uncovered that Google was partial to its Doubleclick for Publisher (DFP) advertising server, which allows site publishers and app publishers to sell their advertising space, as well as its Supply Side Platform (SSP) AdX listing platform, which organizes auction processes and allows publishers to sell their “impressions” or advertising inventory to advertisers.

Rivals of Google suffered as a result of this preferential treatment, said the French regulator.

“These very serious practices have penalized competition in the emerging online advertising market, and have enabled Google not only to preserve but also to increase its dominant position,” said de Silva.

The French watchdog said according to the terms of the settlement, Google had committed to improving the way their ad manager services work with rival ad servers and ad space sales platforms.

Google spoke out in a blog on Monday, saying it would be making some changes to is advertising technology.

“We recognize 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,” Maria Gomri, legal director of Google France wrote