Explainer-in-brief: Europe proves a hostile market for Big Tech
European and UK regulators have teamed up for the second time in less than a year to crack down on tech giants skirting anticompetitive practices.
On Friday, the Competition and Markets Authority in the UK and the EU Commission launched a probe into an online advertising deal between Google and Meta to allegedly shut out other competitors. Under EU law, companies in breach of antitrust rules can lose up to 10 per cent of global revenues.
But the legal processes can drag on for years. EU competition boss Margrathe Vestager said there were suspicions Google had acted without Meta’s knowledge.
Google has more than a 90 per cent share of the £7.3bn search ads market in the UK, while Meta controls more than half of the £5.5bn display advertising market.
Last June, Brussels and the UK also announced formal investigative proceedings into Facebook over the company’s use of customer data for digital advertising. It comes as tech giants gear up for further curbing of their influence, as the UK government prepares to publish the Online Safety Bill.
But a host of groups have voiced concerns that the bill would make tech less competitive, as smaller companies are edged out as the established players protect their own market.