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Google, Meta Jedi Blue Online Display Advertising Investigation Overview:
- Who: Antitrust authorities in Britain and the European Union are separately investigating an online display advertising agreement between Meta and Google.
- Why: Antitrust authorities are concerned the deal, named Jedi Blue, was done as a way to exert control over the market for online display advertising.
- Where: The investigation is being conducted concurrently by the European Union and antitrust authorities in Britain.
Antitrust authorities in Britain and the European Union are both looking into an online display advertising deal made between Facebook and Google in 2018.
The EU has said the deal, coined Jedi Blue, could be foiling online display advertising rivals and creating a disadvantage for publishers in the space, Reuters reports.
Britain’s antitrust authority is also investigating Google and Meta over Jedi Blue with the cooperation of the EU’s competition watchdog
The agreement allows Meta, now the parent company of Facebook, to take part in Google’s Open Bidding Programme, which enables advertisers to bid for header space.
Header bidding, which is separate and a rival of Google’s Open Bidding Programme, is a mechanism through which ad publishers can simultaneously offer space to multiple ad exchanges, Reuters reports.
“A competing technology to Google’s Open Bidding may have been targeted with the aim to weaken it and exclude it from the market for displaying ads on publisher websites and apps,” EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager said in a statement.
EU Investigating If Google Taking Advantage Of Market Power
The EU investigation is not only focusing on the agreement between Meta and Google but also whether the latter is taking advantage of its market power to stifle competition, Reuters reports.
Meta has denied that it breached any antitrust laws.
“Meta’s non-exclusive bidding agreement with Google and the similar agreements we have with other bidding platforms, have helped to increase competition for ad placements,” the company said in a statement.
In addition to the investigation into Jedi Blue, Google and Meta are being investigated for other potential antitrust issues and could each face fines of up to 10% of their global turnover, Reuters reports.
Jedi Blue has also faced pushback in the United States with 16 states filing an antitrust complaint alleging the deal was made as a way to counter header bidding.
In that case, a group of attorneys general argued the deal was part of an attempt to monopolize the market for online display advertising.
Specifically, the state’s argue Meta agreed to put a limit on its own header bidding in exchange for “information, speed and other advantages” in Google’s mobile app advertising auctions.
Last month, the Competition and Markets Authority approved Google’s move to replace third-party cookies as part of changes to its Google Privacy Sandbox.
The Google-proposed changes bar it from doing anything which would give it an advantage over the competition, among other things.
Do you believe Meta conspired with Google to control the market for online display advertising? Let us know in the comments!
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