Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, ANTITRUST NEWS: EC fines Google 2.95B Euros in AdTech antitrust case; divestiture still on table, (Sep 8, 2025)

By Lynn Stanton

The EC will assess any proposal submitted by Google before determining if divestiture will be necessary.

In a proceeding that began in 2021, the European Commission has fined Google LLC 2.95 billion euros ($3.46 billion) for anticompetitive actions in the advertising technology (adtech) market and directed the company to submit within 90 days its plan for eliminating its “inherent conflicts of interest along the adtech supply chain.” The commission will “thoroughly assess” that plan and, if it determines it is inadequate, the commission will “proceed to impose an appropriate remedy,” subject to Google’s right to be heard,” it said in a press release announcing the fine.

The Commission indicated more than two years ago its “preliminary view” that the company should have to divest its “ad tech” services because its business practices break the European Union’s antitrust rules by favoring Google’s own display advertising technology “to the detriment of competing providers of advertising technology services, advertisers and online publishers.”. However, it later said it first wanted to assess Google’s proposal before mandating divestiture.

“The Commission's investigation found that Google is dominant: (i) in the market for publisher ad servers with its service ‘DFP’ [DoubleClick For Publishers]; and (ii) in the market for programmatic ad buying tools for the open web with its services ‘Google Ads’ and ‘DV360.’ Both markets are European Economic Area-wide,” the commission said in announcing the fine.

It cited Google’s practices of “[f]avouring its own ad exchange AdX in the ad selection process run by its dominant publisher ad server DFP by, for example, informing AdX in advance of the value of the best bid from competitors which it had to beat to win the auction” and “[f]avouring its ad exchange AdX in the way its ad buying tools Google Ads and DV360 place bids on ad exchanges. For example, Google Ads was avoiding competing ad exchanges and mainly placing bids on AdX, thus making it the most attractive ad exchange.”

“The Commission has concluded that those conducts aimed at intentionally giving AdX a competitive advantage and may have foreclosed ad exchanges competing with AdX,” it added.

In a statement, Teresa Ribera, the Commission’s executive vice-president–clean, just, and competitive transition, said, “Today’s decision shows that Google abused its dominant position in adtech harming publishers, advertisers, and consumers. This behaviour is illegal under EU antitrust rules. Google must now come forward with a serious remedy to address its conflicts of interest, and if it fails to do so, we will not hesitate to impose strong remedies. Digital markets exist to serve people and must be grounded in trust and fairness. And when markets fail, public institutions must act to prevent dominant players from abusing their power. True freedom means a level playing field, where everyone competes on equal terms and citizens have a genuine right to choose.”

Lee-Anne Mulholland, vice president-global head of regulatory affairs at Google, said in a statement, “The European Commission's decision about our ad tech services is wrong and we will appeal. It imposes an unjustified fine and requires changes that will hurt thousands of European businesses by making it harder for them to make money. There’s nothing anticompetitive in providing services for ad buyers and sellers, and there are more alternatives to our services than ever before.”

News: Antitrust