Antitrust regulators in the European Union have leveled several new charges against Google’s advertising business, claiming that Google is guilty of anti-competitive practices.

The EU antitrust commission says that market dominance is not a problem under EU law, but it noted in a statement that it believes Google’s exclusivity agreements for users of AdSense, its program for syndicated ads to other websites, have “prevented existing and potential competitors, including other search providers and online advertising platforms, from entering and growing in this commercially important area.”

“Google has come up with many innovative products that have made a difference to our lives,” Margrethe Vestager, the European Commissioner for Competition, said in the statement. “But that doesn’t give Google the right to deny other companies the chance to compete and innovate. Today, we have further strengthened our case that Google has unduly favoured its own comparison shopping service in its general search result pages. It means consumers may not see the most relevant results to their search queries. We have also raised concerns that Google has hindered competition by limiting the ability of its competitors to place search adverts on third party websites, which stifles consumer choice and innovation.

“Google now has the opportunity to respond to our concerns. I will consider their arguments carefully before deciding how to take both cases forward. But if our investigations conclude that Google has broken EU antitrust rules, the Commission has a duty to act to protect European consumers and fair competition on European markets.”

Here is the list of specific complaints against Google AdSense, according the the EU antitrust commission’s statement:

• Exclusivity: requiring third parties not to source search ads from Google’s competitors.
• Premium placement of a minimum number of Google search ads: requiring third parties to take a minimum number of search ads from Google and reserve the most prominent space on their search results pages to Google search ads. In addition, competing search ads cannot be placed above or next to Google search ads.
• Right to authorise competing ads: requiring third parties to obtain Google’s approval before making any change to the display of competing search ads.

The charges against AdSense have been added to existing complaints against Google for its comparison shopping searches, which were originally filed in April 2015. The EU commission accused Google of unfairly prioritizing its own comparison shopping service versus general searches.

According to the EU antitrust commission, Google and Alphabet have eight weeks to respond to its allegations before it decides how to proceed.

Image courtesy of Google