European Commission could move to break up Google’s ad empire

The European Commission announced today that Google may have violated EU antitrust law by controlling too much of the online advertising industry, and that it could move to force the company to divest part of its advertising business if it wants to continue operating in Europe.

In a preliminary finding issued this morning, the Commission said that Google’s high degree of control over both the supply and demand side of the advertising technology market threatens free competition in that market and that it could force Google to sell off some of its core business to address those concerns.

“The Commission preliminarily finds that, in this particular case, a behavioral remedy is likely to be ineffective to prevent the risk that Google continues such self-preferencing conducts or engages in new ones,” the statement read.

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