Britain’s competition authorities opened their second investigation into Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOGL) advertising practices on Thursday, alleging that the Alphabet-owned search engine may have improperly favored its own services.
The Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) latest investigation follows its earlier investigation into the “Jedi Blue” arrangement between Google and Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) owner Meta.
Governments throughout the globe are tightening their oversight of U.S. tech corporations that have grown even more powerful as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak. Several investigations are being done around the world, especially in the United States and the European Union, about their market shares.
Britain passed a new competition law last year that makes it illegal for big companies like Google and Facebook to use their market power to drive out smaller competitors and hurt consumers.
The action led to the creation of a separate Digital Markets Unit within the CMA. This unit could be given the power to stop, block, and reverse decisions made by tech companies, as well as to fine them for not following the rules.
Companies were told to be more open about how they used customer data and to adapt their advertising methods to changing consumer expectations about data collection and use.
The CMA said on Thursday that it was looking into three major parts of the ad tech stack chain. These are services that help ad tech work, and Google is the biggest company in each of these areas.
“We are worried that Google may be using its dominant position in ad tech to favor its own services over those of its competitors, users, and ultimately consumers,” said CMA Chief Executive Andrea Coscelli in a statement.
A Google representative told Reuters that the company would continue to collaborate with the CMA to address its queries and reveal the inner workings of its systems.
