Google agreed to make few changes in its frequently used online advertisement services after France imposed a $267 million fine. The issue was resolved under an unprecedented settlement with France’s antitrust watchdog released on 7 June, 2021.
The France authority also charged the California based company 220 million euros when it found out that google has made some of its advertisement tools mandatory for large publishers.
This decision of France is just to try to create a rebalance in favor of publishers over online ad struggle. Which was highly influential in the pre internet era but has lost all its grounds with the rise of Facebook and google ads.
The France authority also said that this decision has opened new ways for publishers who always felt disadvantaged because of google ads. In Fact many of the big publishers have shown their sadness globally over google ads services by big firms or technologies.
France antitrust chief Isabelle De Silva also said “The decision to sanction Google is of particular significance because it’s the first decision in the world focusing on the complex algorithmic auction process in which the online ad business relies”. She also added that the fine was reduced but further she did mention clearly any of the specifics.
The watchdog also said that Google will not seek an appeal in court for the authorities decision. The French competition authorities are deeply investigating what kind of online advertising tools google offers to their publishers while selling and managing online ads.
The settlement of google with France authorities clearly depicts that google is ready to bend under antitrust pressure and make functional changes to few of its most popular advertising tools.
The watchdog also brought light to the fact that google ad management platform for big publishers favored AdX in their own marketplace where publishers sell space to advertisers in real time. It did so by providing AdX data such as winning and bidding prices.
The watchdog also found that Google AdX offered Google Ad Manager Superior interoperable features more than the side selling companies. Which actually allows this crucial company’s publishers to manage the available advertisement space and fill them later with tons of ads and bag high revenues.
Under the terms of settlement google has made commitments to the watchdog “ to improve the interoperable features of google Ad manager services with third party ad server and Ad space sales platform’’.
While the binding of this session the watchdog accepted all the terms of settlement satisfactorily.