Google will pay a fine in France for prioritizing its own advertising

The French Competition Authority has fined Google € 220 million for promoting its own services in the online advertising sector. This was stated on Monday by the AFP news agency, referring to the statement of the regulatory authority. According to AFP, Google "did not dispute the facts" and the fine was decided in a transaction procedure with the American giant. The Competition Authority was initially alerted to Google's practices by three news groups - News Corp, Le Figaro and Rossel. The media company Le Figaro later withdrew from the process. "We have found that Google has granted preferential treatment to its proprietary technologies offered under the Google Ad Manager brand," the Competition Authority said in an official statement. And he clarified that Google's practices are particularly serious because they put the company's competitors at a disadvantage in the advertising network market, the so-called Supply-side Platforms (SSPs), the platforms on which publishers sell their advertising application, space, as well as website and mobile publishers. In practice, this has particularly affected newspaper publishers. In addition to the financial sanctions, Google has entered into commitments to address the issues raised by the Competition Authority's investigation. "This is a historic decision because it is the first decision in the world to examine the complex algorithmic auction processes used by Internet display advertising," said Isabelle de Silva, head of competition. This is an ad that appears on the screens of Internet users. AFP recalled that Alphabet, Google's parent company, had revenue of $ 55.31 billion in the first quarter of 2021, primarily through online advertising. The company is facing competition lawsuits in several other countries.