Wout van Wijk, News Media Europe’s Executive Director, said: “The EU is finally taking this seriously and suggesting breaking up Google’s ad-tech business. This is unfortunately the only way to tackle Google’s illegal behaviour which has not improved or become more transparent over the years”.

News Media Europe (NME) has long advocated for decisive EU action against Google’s monopolistic and rent extracting market practices in online advertising. Put simply, Google not only dominates the buy and sell side of the online advertising market, it also operates the main “ad exchange” for these transactions.

In doing so, Google forces ad buyers and sellers, including news publishers, to use its services and overcharges them for it. Google’s ad business, which accounts for more than 80% of its revenues, is heavily integrated along the ad-tech value chain. You can read more about this and recent legal action against Google’s advertising business in our recent blogpost.

NME will continue to support the Commission in its anti-trust actions against players that harm European news publishers, be it Google or any other big tech. In addition, NME is committed to ensure a strong implementation of the EU’s recently adopted Digital Markets Act (DMA).

Contact:

Iacob Gammeltoft, EU Policy Manager