The French Competition Authority has fined Google a €220 million fine. Why? This was due to the fact that Google was favouring its own digital advertising rather than being fair to its rivals. The global tech giant has taken this fine and has also proposed changes to its ad technology. This French fine has come straight after Italy has had a go at them.
According to the French watchdog, Google has been giving preferential treatment to its DFP ad server – which is what allows publishers to sell their advertising space. As well as this, it is claimed that the company has penalised competitors in the online market and have “weakened” many publishers.
What Changes is Google Making?
As promised, the tech company is making changes to its ad program. They are going to allow publishers to set their preferred pricing rules for ads in sensitive categories in Ad Manager. They are also going to be “implementing product changes that improve the interoperability between Ad Manager and third-party ad servers”.
Google has then also promised not to use data from rival sell-side platforms to optimise bids. The tech supergiant will not share any bid from Ad Manager auction participants with other auction participants before the auction has been completed.
