Britain launches second probe into Google online ads

LONDON: Britain on Thursday launched a second regulatory investigation into US tech giant Google’s dominance in online advertising technology.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) watchdog said in a statement that it will examine the group’s services that facilitate the sale of online advertising space between publishers and advertisers.

The CMA will look at three key parts of Google’s complex set of services known as advertising technology intermediation or the ad tech stack, and in each of which the US giant is a dominant player.

The tech titan has "strong positions" at various levels of the ad tech stack and charges fees to both publishers and advertisers, according to the CMA. "We’re worried that Google may be using its position in ad tech to favour its own services to the detriment of its rivals, of its customers and ultimately of consumers," added CMA chief executive Andrea Coscelli in the statement.