A big group of European publishers has filed an anti-competition complaint with the EU against Google for its adtech “stranglehold” over press publishers and related businesses.

The European Publishers Council (EPC) asked the European Commission today (11 February) to hold Alphabet-owned Google accountable for its anti-competitive conduct and impose remedies to restore conditions of effective competition in the ad tech value chain.

This complaint is part of a decade-long fight between publishers in the EU and Google over its alleged restriction of competition in the adtech space which is an important source of revenue for many news organisations and other media with a digital footprint.

The EPC claims that Google has “embarked on a barrage of unlawful tactics to foreclose competition in adtech” since the search giant acquired online ad tracking company DoubleClick in 2008. It claims that this strategy of eliminating competition has given Google a market share of up to 100pc in the adtech space.

EPC chair Christian Van Thillo called on the Commission to “impose measures on Google that actually change, not just challenge, its behaviour” which has damaged Europe’s press publishers in particular and to advertisers as a whole through “higher adtech fees, less choice, less transparency and less innovation”.

The group also found that Google was rife with conflicts of interests in its adtech suite, where it represented both the buyer and seller in the same transaction while also operating the auction house in the middle and selling its own inventory.

It alleges that Google has taken advantage of its unique position to prioritise its self-interest over the interests of the customers it serves.

“This cannot go on. The stakes are too high, particularly for the future viability of funding a free and pluralistic press. We call on the Commission to take concrete steps right now that will actually break the stranglehold that Google has over us all,” said Van Thillo.

The EPC also said that the Commission is “uniquely positioned” to act on the complaint and that it can “leverage the findings” of many other competition authorities that have called out Google for its alleged malpractices in the adtech space, such as in France, Australia, the UK and US.

In November, the Irish Government said it was looking to make Irish copyright law “fit for purpose in a digital age” by giving more rights to creators over their work when shared online, in a move that will impact the businesses of Google and Facebook.

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