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June 7 Isabelle de Silva, an unknown French regulator, was the world’s headliner. After an in-depth investigation, De Silva said it was the most complex, involving the French Competition Agency or the FCA Google With a $ 260 million fine. Google, De Silva promised, was using the advertising technology that was already prevalent to strengthen its position and overcome rivals.
But Silva was not finished. A month later, in another case, he was fined again by Google. This time Google has failed to negotiate copyright changes in search results with organizations. Google’s penalty? A fine of $ 594 million.
Such amounts are small changes that are the main business created by Google and Alphabet $ 61.9 billion in the last quarter alone. But the FCA’s ruling on Google’s ad technology was headlined for another reason: Google didn’t fight. The company agreed with all that had happened in the case of the FCA and agreed to make significant changes to its operation. And these changes will not only happen in France, but all over the world.
In a single trial, a regulator known in French as Autorité de la Concurrence managed to shape how Google’s advertising technology works. The resolution revolves around technologies within Google’s Ad Manager, a platform that helps businesses buy and sell ads that appear on billions of websites. The FCA took a special issue with two elements of the Ad Manager system: the DoubleClick for Publishers ad server and the sales platform known as SSP AdX. The former allows website owners to sell ads sitting around the content they post, and the latter controls the complex auction process of the second half.
“Google made sure that the ad server was in favor of a platform to sell advertising space,” says Silva. He also explained that Google used its knowledge of what happened on other ad platforms to its advantage, making its prices lower. “We were able to show in detail that Google not only had information that others didn’t have, it was inherent [dominant] position, but that they have used that information effectively to have a better chance of winning bids, ”says Silva.
In short, Google used its power to give itself an advantage. Under European competition law, companies with a dominant position in the market do not abuse their position. Technological giants are allowed to be large, but they should not use that power to make them stronger to the detriment of their enemies. The FCA ruled that it was Google’s conduct and that the publishers of websites that sold advertising space had lost it. And Google also suffered from rivals in the space of advertising technology because of Google’s actions.
Earlier, three European Commission investigations fined Google more than $ 9.7 billion for its anti-competitive behavior, and the company is suing. But in this case, Google does not question the FCA’s resolution. In fact, he did not question the FCA’s opposition and proposed changes to the advertising technology itself. (It has also made some changes in response to the European Commission’s cases.)
“This is the first decision made by technology giants, and Google in particular, to solve a case,” says Fayrouze Masmi-Dazi, a law partner at French firm Frieh Associés. Google case. “It’s a very important decision. I think it shows that the French competitive authority is very pragmatic and is creative in terms of the solutions that can be found to address the issues. “
“The decision is completely transparent,” says Antoine Riquier Hausfeld, a commercial litigator in the law firm. The 101-page FCA resolution it is packed with diagrams that show advertising technology offerings and how servers work. “You have a lot of details, but it’s not very technical at the same time. There is a lot of work to be done by the French competition authority. “
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