The Bundeskartellamt Publishes the Final Report on its Sector Inquiry into Non-Search Online Advertising

The Bundeskartellamt published its final report on a sector inquiry into non-search online advertising on 31 May 2023. The investigation focused on examining market conditions and operational mechanisms within the non-search online advertising sector, excluding search advertising.

Non-search online advertising relies on complex automated trading and programmatic advertising to display and verify ads. Alphabet, particularly through its strong presence across the value chain of non-search online advertising, holds a significant position in this system. Given Alphabet's substantial market position in both non-search and search online advertising (via Google Search), it maintains a prominent position in the overall online advertising sector.

The sector inquiry also revealed a lack of transparency in programmatic advertising. Market players have raised concerns about the inability to observe and evaluate the effectiveness of their advertisements due to limited access to relevant data on ad performance.

Transparency issues extend to the users' perspective as well. User data serves as a crucial foundation for programmatic advertising, but users face difficulties in understanding how their data is utilized, who has access to it, and the overall process. To address these concerns, various legal policy proposals have been suggested to restrict data collection and its use for advertising purposes. The Bundeskartellamt has examined this matter from a competition law perspective.

You can access the full text of the news here.

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