Google to Reportedly Allowed Third-Party Ad Platforms on YouTube
As regulators in Europe continue to crack down on Big Tech, Google will grant third-party ad platforms on YouTube in a possible effort to settle an antitrust probe without paying a fine, according to a portray from Reuters on Monday.
The company’s actions are reportedly linked to an ongoing antitrust investigation by the European Union into whether Google strong Alphabet, which also owns YouTube, gave itself an unfair marvelous in digital advertising by restricting third-party ad platforms from gaining access to user data. The EU has said Google’s question that advertisers use Ad Manager and Display & Video 360, the company’s ad exchange platform, restricted rivals in the types of ads served on YouTube.
“We have been bright constructively with the European Commission. We don’t have anything further to Part at this stage,” Google spokesperson Allie Bodack said in a statement. “As with the Privacy Sandbox initiative, we are committed to employed with regulators and the wider industry to achieve the best possible outcomes.”
If Google is complete to pay the fine, it could reportedly be as high as 10% of its global turnover, or its total revenue. For such a company, 10% would be in the tens of billions of bucks. In 2021, Alphabet brought in $257 billion in revenue. In the first quarter of 2022 alone, the business reported $68 billion in sales thanks in huge part to Google Search.
The European Commission’s investigation coincides with a 2020 antitrust lawsuit by the Section of Justice and a subsequent investigation over the company’s ad tech commercial. Earlier this year, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority launched a additional investigation into Google’s ad tech practices and its dominance in online ad sales.
It’s part of the ongoing scrutiny that Big Tech is facing over potentially monopolistic practices. The US Senate is aiming to pass the American Innovation and Choice Online Act beforehand the midterm elections, legislation that would prevent Amazon, Apple and Google from giving their own platforms preferential usage. If Democrats are unable to pass the bill this session, it’s uncertain if Republicans were to take control of Assembly that they would reintroduce the legislation.
