UK watchdog to vet Google ad system

A CONTrOVerSIAL advertising system being set up by Google is to be developed under the supervision of the competition regulator.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said yesterday it had secured a world-first deal with the tech firm to protect users’ privacy and safeguard competition and fair returns for news publishers.

It was feared that Google would use the system to distort competition by favouring its own advertising products and making it harder for other firms to earn money from the web. But the CMA said it had ‘secured commitments’ from the online giant to ‘address concerns’.

Google has pledged to not discriminate against rivals with its Privacy Sandbox ad service, which is due out next year. The deal comes after the CMA launched ‘enforcement action’ against the search engine giant in January over its plans.

CMA chief executive Andrea Coscelli said that once accepted, the commitments ‘become legally binding, promoting competition in digital markets, helping to protect the ability of online publishers to raise money through advertising and safeguarding users’ privacy’.

The CMA’s agreement is being seen as a trial run for its new Digital Markets Unit, which has been set up to keep powerful tech companies in check.

Marketers for an Open Web, a group of online publishers, advertisers, tech and data firms behind a legal action against Google that prompted the CMA to investigate the web giant, said the regulator must ensure that Google cannot ‘slip anti- competitive measures under the radar’.

Its director, James rosewell, said: ‘The authority must make sure Google is not allowed to use undue influence and bully competitors as it has in the past. We will be looking to Google to honour its undertakings to the CMA.’