EU regulators could force Google to sell part of its digital advertising (adtech) business, in order to address the bloc's competition concerns.
The European Comission has published a preliminary conclusion of their investigation into the company's dominance of the adtech sector,
The document stated that the search giant had abused its dominant position in the sector by shutting out competitors since at least 2014. It added that “only the mandatory divestment by Google of part of its services would address its competition concerns”.
The preliminary view is a summary of a two-year-long investigation into Google's adtech practices, due to concerns that the company controlled almost all levels of the supply chain for online display advertising.
In the report, the Comission stated that Google had favoured its own ad exchange, AdX, in the auctions held by its own ad server, DFP, and in the way its ad-buying tools, Google Ads and DV360, place...