Open Markets and Partners Call on European Commission to Divest Google’s Adtech Businesses

BRUSSELS – A coalition of prominent civil society organizations including the Open Markets Institute has urged the European Commission to take decisive action against Google’s dominance in the digital advertising sector. In an open letter addressed to the leadership of the European Commission’s competition authority, DG Competition, the groups expressed deep concern over the impact of Google’s monopoly on democracy, the news media, and the digital economy in Europe.

The letter highlights the European Commission’s long-standing efforts to regulate tech giants but emphasizes that previous remedies have been ineffective. “Seven years after the first decision against Google, the Commission’s remedies have done little to curb its power,” the groups state. “The dominant platform monopolists promised to serve European citizens but have instead driven us apart, stealing our private information to manipulate us for profit.”

The coalition singles out Google’s acquisition of Doubleclick in 2007 as a turning point that allowed the tech giant to control the digital advertising market, from ad buying and selling to the ad exchange itself. This “inherent conflict of interest,” they argue, has devastated Europe’s news media, with the continent losing 30% of its media jobs since 2008.

Referring to the European Commission’s June 2023 Statement of Objections, the letter reiterates the need for structural remedies. “Only the mandatory divestment of Google’s adtech businesses stands a chance of leveling the playing field,” the coalition writes, urging the Commission to follow through with comprehensive measures that would separate Google’s advertising businesses from its control over ad exchanges.

The groups also call for a broader restructuring of the digital advertising market to ensure fair access and non-discrimination. They argue that allowing Google to control both sides of the ad market has created a power imbalance that decimates our news media, trapping it in Google’s walled empire, and that ultimately undermines our democracies.

The coalition also highlights the opportunity for transatlantic collaboration, noting that the U.S. Department of Justice has also pursued structural remedies in its own antitrust cases against Google. “This is a historic opportunity for Europe and American enforcers to design structural remedies that meet the threat Google poses to our free press and our democracies –together,” the letter states.

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