Sydney, Australia, Sep 28 (EFE).- The competition regulator in Australia warned Tuesday that Google’s dominance within the online advertising market within the country “significantly” affects publishing companies also as consumers. In a report released by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, the regulator said Google features a dominant position in key areas of the advertising technology supply chain. It said this facilitates the buying and selling of advertising space in Internet portals and applications to market its products to consumers.
The commission – which convinced parliament to pass a law in February to force technology companies to pay local media for the content they generate and publish on internet platforms like Google and Facebook – has been investigating the digital services markets since last year. It estimates that during this advertising technology supply chain, quite 90 percent of publicity (viewing a billboard posted on an internet page) passed, a minimum of once, through a Google service in 2020.
The commission also said Google’s dominance within the supply chain allows it to act as both an advertising and publisher at an equivalent time, creating a conflict of interest that harms its competitors in both buying and selling of advertisements. The regulator said Google’s domain is predicated on its access to data, like that of consumers or some exclusive inventories and therefore the integration of various services, and said it made key acquisitions of the DoubleClick company in 2007 and therefore the AdMob application in 2009, also as YouTube in 2006.
“Google used its vertically integrated position to work its advertising technology services and has led, over time, to a less competitive ad technology industry. This conduct helped establish and secure its dominant position within the ad technology supply chain,” commission President Rod Sims said during a statement. The regulator said a minimum of 27 percent of advertising sold through the technology supply chain was retained by providers in 2020. Google said its advertising technology creates 15,000 jobs and contributes AUD 2.45 billion ($ 1.79 billion) of gross added value to the Australian economy annually. EFE
