The French Competition Authority has imposed a fine of 150 million euros on Google for abuse of the dominant position in the online advertising market. The agency believes that the company's advertising platform - and the fundamental support of its business - is "opaque", "difficult to understand" and is subject to rules that are imposed "unfairly and randomly."
Google Ads, former Adwords, presents a series of sponsored search results, for which advertisers or media agencies pay a decided amount through a bidding system for the keywords that are entered into the search engine; Google's is the global leader, especially in the West, to the point that France covers around 96% of those searches, a portion that is associated "probably more than 90%" of that market, according to the Competition Authority.
For Henri Piffaut, vice president of the competition authority, Google attempts against competition because it "promotes its own services" within the searches made by users.
For "negligence, even Google opportunism," the authority has punished the company based in the Californian town of Mountain View, which would have caused "damage to the economy" gala. The company must clarify its rules, in principle governed by algorithms, to the French authority.
The case originates from Gibmedia, an editor that was suspended by Google Ads. After an investigation had been carried out for four years, the authority would have concluded that Gibmedia-like online sites have not been suspended, while that company has lost visibility, so Google would apply "its own rules inconsistently."
"People expect to be protected from abusive and exploding ads and that's what our advertising policies are for. Gibmedia was running ads on websites that tricked people into paying for services with unclear billing terms," Google argues. , as the technology has communicated to EL MUNDO: "We do not want this type of ads in our systems, so we suspend Gibmedia and waive advertising revenue to protect consumers from damage. We will appeal this decision," they announced. .
"Google cannot have all the benefits without having the limitations," said Isabelle de Silva, president of the French competition authority.
This is not the first Google crash in France. Earlier this year, the National Commission for Information Technology and Freedoms (CNIL) fined the company with 50 million euros for violating the data protection rules required by the current General Data Protection Regulation of the European Union (GDPR).
Failures in transparency and information, as well as the need for consent by users, are the reasons for applying the maximum penalty provided for in the new European regulation.
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