The European Commission has opened a formal antitrust investigation to assess whether an agreement between Google and Meta (formerly Facebook) for online display advertising services may have breached EU competition rules.
The Commission investigation concerns a September 2018 agreement, which Google code-named “Jedi Blueâ€, between Google and Meta for the participation of Meta's Audience Network in Google's Open Bidding programme.
The Commission is concerned that the agreement may form part of efforts to exclude ad tech services competing with Google's Open Bidding programme, and therefore restrict or distort competition in markets for online display advertising, to the detriment of publishers, and ultimately consumers.
If proven, the practices under investigation may breach EU competition rules on anticompetitive agreements between companies (Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (‘TFEU')) and/or the abuse of a dominant position (Article 102 TFEU).
The Commission will now carry out its in-depth investigation as a matter of priority. The opening of a formal investigation does not prejudge its outcome.
The UK's Competition Market Authority (‘CMA') has launched its own investigation into the agreement between Google and Meta. As customary, the Commission has been in contact with the CMA and intends to closely cooperate on this investigation following the applicable rules and procedures.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is focusing on whether the companies restricted or prevented the uptake of header bidding services and whether Google also affected the ability of other firms to compete with its products in this area.
Header bidding is a service which allows sellers, such as news publishers, to offer their online advertising space to multiple buyers at the same time, rather than receiving offers one by one. As a result, buyers – or advertisers – compete against each other for ad space and publishers can compare bids from multiple buyers simultaneously. This competition between buyers can make auctions more competitive. ■