French competition authority fines €150 million to Google for unfair rules regarding advertising platform

The French competition authority announced a €150 million fine on Google on Friday. The regulator called Google’s advertising platform rules as unpredictable and unfair. The watchdog further added that applying such rules suggests that Google doesn’t refrain from abusing its monopoly that it has created over the market in the previous decades.

Google has recently been under intense scrutiny from multiple regulatory bodies across the world. While the U.S tech giant has been fined heavily in the past years, it is the first time that the French watchdog has announced such a sizeable fine on Google.

Google Says It Will Appeal Against The Decision

Google responded with a statement that it considers the regulator’s decision unfair and plans on appealing against it in the upcoming weeks. Google Ads enables advertisers to be sponsored by the tech company at the top of the relevant search results. The French competition authority evaluated the rules circling Google’s ad platform and declared them to be unpredictable and lacking objectivity on Friday.

According to the watchdog, Google currently has a monopoly over 90% of the market segment (online search business). As such, it is the company’s responsibility to ensure fair and equal access for all advertisers.

The French regulator took over four years to thoroughly evaluate Google’s practices regarding its advertising platform. The investigation began following Gibmedia’s complaint of unfair access to Google’s platform. Gibmedia is a local French company that has multiple websites that offer corporate data, weather forecasts, directories, etc.

Google Suspended Gibmedia’s Ads Account Without Notice

In the original complaint by Gibmedia, Google was accused of suspending the company’s ads account without a formal warning or a legal notice. According to the regulator, Google keeps the authority to change its rules or terms of the agreement at any time without notice. The practice, the watchdog added, is synonymous with the abuse of power in the market.

In return, Google has also accused Gibmedia of using the platform to advertise its services without offering sufficient information to the potential customers regarding billing terms and conditions. Gibmedia is yet to respond to Google’s allegation.

Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc., shows a considerable response to the news in the stock market. Having opened at $1,360 on Friday, the stock dropped as low as $1,352 in a matter of hours. While share prices were reported to have gained back to around $1,357, the gain was seen unsustainable with the stock currently exchanging hands at $1,354 level.