Google is threatened with billions in fines from the EU antitrust authorities because of the company’s business practices in online advertising, the so-called ad-tech area. The news service Bloomberg reports, citing anonymous sources, that the EU intends to publish a so-called “Statement of Objections” against Google as early as Wednesday. The SZ there is confirmation of this information.
The sources cited in the Bloomberg report speak of “the most important antitrust case in the tenure of this EU Commission”. Such a procedure could be very expensive for Google. According to EU law, a cartel fine can amount to up to ten percent of annual sales. Google makes over 80 percent of its profits from online advertising. In 2022 alone, Google took in 225 billion dollars.
Google initially did not comment on the report. The company is in a special situation compared to its competitors in the online advertising market because Google not only sells ads, but also operates the platform on which they are displayed. Therefore, Google knows a great deal about people who are on their advertising space, such as Google Search, and can use this knowledge to display ads more specifically than others.
In 2021, the EU launched an investigation into the company’s online advertising business. It was about how Google has blocked competitors from accessing user data for online advertising. In January 2023, the US Department of Justice had already sued Google because of the “Monopolization of digital advertising” sued.
Google last accepted a $1.5 billion fine in 2019 over antitrust concerns about its online advertising. Overall, the EU has already imposed antitrust fines of around 8.25 billion euros against Google.