LONDON, England : The Competition and Markets Authority of the UK has launched a second investigation into the advertising sales practices of Google.
According to the authority, Google, owned by Alphabet, could be conducting anti-competitive practices and may have illegally favored its own services.
The latest investigation follows an investigation into an agreement signed by Google and Facebook earlier this year.
As the U.S. tech giants become more powerful during the COVID 19 epidemic, governments around the world are strengthening their regulations through a number of international investigations into their market positions, including in the U.S. and the EU.
In 2021, the UK put in place a new policy on competition to prevent Google and Facebook from pushing out smaller advertising firms.
The Competition and Markets Authority created a Digital Markets Unit that can suspend, block and reverse decisions made by technology firms and impose financial penalties for non-compliance.
Major tech companies must become more transparent about their use of consumer data, and adapt their advertising practices in response to the new regulations.
The Competition and Markets Authority said this week that it was looking at three key parts of the ad tech stack chain, the services that mediate ads, as Google owned the largest provider in each of those components.
Competition and Markets Authority Chief Executive Andrea Coscelli said in a statement that they were worried that Google might 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. Google will work with the Competition and Markets Authority to answer its questions and share the details on how the company's systems work, a Google spokeswoman told Reuters.