Online Advertising: The French Competition Decision on Google's Self-Preferencing in Ad Tech

Abstract

On 7 June 2021, the French Competition Authority (“FCA”) concluded an investigation into Google’s ad tech business. The FCA (i) found that Google abused a pan-European dominant position and thereby infringed EU competition law by favoring its proprietary display advertis-ing intermediation services, (ii) fined Google €220 million and (iii) rendered commitments man-datory that Google had offered and intends to implement globally.

The Decision is only one effort among many to restore competition in ad tech. Embedding the Decision in the global debate on competition in online advertising, this article summarizes the technical and economic background, outlines the abuses of dominance identified by the FCA, and assesses the legal implications of the Decision for affected parties as well as for (remaining) specific regulation of the conflicts of interest within the ad tech markets.

Keywords: antitrust, competition, ad tech, digital markets, Google, self-preferencing, DMA, online advertising

JEL Classification: K21, L12, L41, L86, M37, 031