Euractiv - The EU and US should stand together on the Google adtech cases

EU research fellow Claire Lavin published an op-ed calling for the EU and U.S. to coordinate in bringing Google to account for its monopolization of the adtech industry.

The US and EU are on the brink of two historic decisions that could reshape Google’s grip on the digital economy – and breathe new life into our struggling press.

US judge Leonie Brinkema and the European Commission’s DG Competition are both preparing to decide on Google’s liability for monopolising the market in advertising technology and potentially to design remedies to address its stranglehold over the advertising ecosystem.  

This is a critical moment: for the first time, regulators on both sides of the Atlantic have a chance to tackle Google’s monopoly in sync. Their decisions hinge on the future of our press—and, by extension, our democracies. Yet, recent reports have hinted that the Commission could backtrack from its initial proposal to break up Google, missing the chance for the transformation publishers and citizens badly need in this space. 

Google built its monopoly over digital advertising by buying out DoubleClick, Invite Media, and Admeld. Competition authorities allowed these mergers at the time, a decision now widely seen as a grave mistake.

Having locked down where publishers show ads, advertisers put them, and the exchange where the two sides dealt, Google pursued a simple but devastating strategy. It abused its informational advantages and engaged in other anti-competitive practices to secure its place as an indispensable intermediary—publishers and advertisers had nowhere else to go—and extracted profits from its customers. 

This has caused massive damage to our democracies and our economies. Newspapers depend on digital advertising but have struggled to stay afloat. Lost revenues have forced them to cut staff and close local offices. Publishers have been diverted from quality reporting to chasing advertising revenue. This means degraded media coverage and a decline in the quality of the information the public can read.  

Both sides of the Atlantic have the power to mend this broken system. To end the conflicts of interest Google has been exploiting, decision-makers must restore competition, undo the mergers they should never have permitted in the first place, and break Google up.  

This assignment should not be viewed as groundbreaking. It won't be the first time splitting up corporations. When the EU liberalised its energy markets, companies had to separate their production from transport and distribution to avoid conflicts of interest. 

Read full article here.