The AGCM, the Italian Competition Authority better known as Antitrust , has investigation initiated against Google assuming a abuse of dominant position . The company allegedly “ violated the article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union regarding the availability and use of data for the processing of display advertising campaigns “, the space that publishers and website owners make available for the display of advertising content.

The 27 October the Authority conducted inspections in the offices by Google , with the collaboration of the military of the Guardia di Finanza. According to the AGCM, Google makes a discriminatory use of the enormous amount of data collected through its applications, preventing competing operators in the online advertising sales markets from being able to compete in effective way .

In particular, Google seems to have carried out a conduct of internal-external discrimination, refusing to provide the decryption keys of the Google ID and excluding third party tracking pixels. At the same time it would have used trackers that allow you to make your own advertising brokerage services able to reach a capacity of targeting that some equally efficient competitors are unable to replicate.

Online advertising sales in 2019 recorded a value of over 3.3 billion , which currently represents 22% of the resources of the media sector, and the display advertising alone a turnover of more than 1.2 billion. “By importance, online advertising is, in terms of value, the second source of revenue in the media sector”, underlines the Antitrust Authority.

Through cookies placed together with banners , pop-ups or other forms of advertising messages visible during the consultation of a website, it is possible for advertisers, agencies and advertising intermediaries to acquire data relevant to the user’s consumption choice and thus personalize subsequent campaigns, orienting the positioning of messages on the content of interest of the individual user.

In addition to these relevant data, Google has multiple tools that allow you to reconstruct in a detailed manner the profile of the subjects to whom advertising messages should be directed. This is the mobile operating system Android , installed on most smartphones used in Italy, the browser for devices Chrome mobile, for searching on the move, the browser for Chrome personal computers, cartography and navigation services Google Maps / Waze and all other services provided through Google ID (gmail, drive, docs, sheet, Youtube).

The conducts that will be investigated by the Authority appear to have a “significant impact on competition in the various markets of the digital advertising chain with extensive repercussions on competitors and consumers. The absence of competition in the ‘digital advertising brokerage, in fact, could reduce the resources allocated to website producers and publishers, thus impoverishing the quality of content directed to the