Industry Contributor
2 Dec 2019 -
2 min read
Google faces fresh probing by antitrust regulators
By Paul McIntyre
- Executive Editor
EU antitrust authorities say they are investigating Google’s data collection practices, raising the prospect of further regulation and fines (Reuters).
Key points
- Investigation in preliminary stages
- Relates to local search, online ads, targeting, web log-in services, browsers and other areas
- European Commission has fined Google €8bn in last two years
The pressure on Google and the platforms keeps mounting, with antitrust investigations underway on both sides of the Atlantic. Meanwhile, Australia’s own ACCC is also poring over the platform’s practices around location data collection and loyalty program member data. The question is whether any resulting fines will make any difference to Google, the cash cow for parent company Alphabet, and whether any resulting rule changes have the desired effect, rather than the perverse outcomes feared by other media companies.