The Italian Competition Authority has opened an investigation against Google for alleged abuse of dominant position in the italian market of digital advertising. The decision was taken on the 20th October 2020, following a report by the Interactive Advertising Bureau Italia.

Google may have violated art. 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of European Union in relation to the availability and use of data for the elaboration of advertising campaigns of display advertising. In 2018 Google stopped releasing Google ID user’s decrypting keys and disabled the tracking systems (pixels) of third parties. The descripted commercial behavior inhibits competitors from being able to analyze users’ activities on Google and, therefore, preventing them to attain an efficient advertising targeting capacity.

At the present date, the tech giant’s conduct is also object of a major antitrust lawsuit started by the U.S. Department of Justice and an investigation opened by India’s antitrust watchdog for alleged abuses of dominant position, respectively in the search advertising and over its payment app. Similarly, a lot of pressure is being put on the EU in order to end Google’s alleged abuse in search advertising.

What would a lack of competition in display advertising entail? Could it mean a decrease of resources destined to websites productors and editors and a subsequent impoverishment of the quality of the content? Furthermore, an absence of competition based on merits could discourage technologic innovation for the development of technologies and put off also less invasive advertising techniques for consumers.

You can read the decision of the AGCM from the following link (in Italian): https://www.agcm.it/dotcmsdoc/allegati-news/A542_avvio%20istruttoria.pdf