Brussels is back in charge against Google again over digital advertising. The European Commission is investigating the dominant search engine after finding signs that sponsored media content was hurting its results and has opened an investigation to check whether its subsidiary Alphabet is failing to comply with the Digital Markets Regulation (DMA). The move opens a new front in the European Union against the technology giant linked to advertising: just over two months ago the administration headed by Teresa Ribera imposed a fine of $2,950 million.
For the authority, sponsored content is “a popular and legitimate way for publishers to earn income from their web pages and content.” Instead, in its monitoring work, the Commission found indications that Google harms web pages and content from media outlets and other publishers in search results when those sites include sponsored content. Specifically, what the search engine does, as explained by sources from the EU executive, is to mark them as spam, which may even result in them not appearing in the search list provided by Google Search.
The explanation given by Google to the Commission is that “this is intended to combat practices that are supposedly aimed at manipulating rankings in search results” following the “Website Reputation Abuse Policy”. Therefore, the investigation “focuses specifically on this practice and how this policy applies to publishers.”
Because it is subject to the DMA, the times for this investigation are significantly shortened compared to what would happen if the file were opened under traditional competition regulations. The Commission now has one year to conduct its investigations, which could result in a fine of 10% of Google’s global revenue, which in 2024 amounted to $350 billion (about 337 billion euros). In case of repetition, the penalty may rise to 20% of that bill. However, fines rarely reach these levels.
The DMA also allows “the Commission to take additional remedial action, such as forcing the sale of a company or parts of it, or prohibiting it from obtaining additional services related to systemic non-compliance.”
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