France Fines Google for Mistreating Search Advertisers
December 20 2019 - 5:39AM
Dow Jones News
By Sam Schechner
PARIS -- France's competition authority fined Alphabet Inc.'s
Google EUR150 million ($167 million) for mistreating advertisers
who buy keyword-based ads on its dominant search engine, the latest
in a series of antitrust probes and decisions against big tech
firms in both Europe and the U.S.
The French authority on Friday said Google abused its dominance
of the market for ads displayed in search results by suspending
advertisers in France in a random and unjustified fashion, imposing
significant losses on those sites.
The authority ordered Google to pay a fine and to stop the
"brutal and unjustified" suspensions of search advertisers and to
clarify its rules for suspensions. The authority also said that
Google should have a system to alert advertisers when they risk
suspension from its Ads system.
"Google has the power of life or death for certain companies
that live by these advertisements," said Isabelle de Silva,
chairman of France's competition authority, at a press conference
to announce the decision. "We don't contest Google's right to
impose rules. But the rules must be clear and imposed equally to
all advertisers."
Google didn't immediately respond to a request for comment, but
the company has in the past said that it removes advertisers for
violating its rules for deceptive or fraudulent advertising.
The French decision comes as big tech companies including Google
ace growing antitrust scrutiny on both sides of the Atlantic.
Write to Sam Schechner at sam.schechner@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 20, 2019 05:24 ET (10:24 GMT)
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