Article from: Understand notes, Picture from: Creatures creative.
As the world ’s largest Internet search engine, Google will face increasing regulations and censorship. Looking back at the upcoming 2019, the “cooperation relationship” between the EU and Google was spent in the same way.
As more and more regulators from around the world join the “review” of Google ’s business landscape, the Internet giant is under more scrutiny.
The French Competition Authority recently announced that it has imposed 150 million euros on Google ’s abuse of its dominant position in the Internet advertising market. (about 166 million US dollars) . After a long investigation of Google’s online advertising department, the French Competition Authority believes that Google has adopted “opaque and difficult-to-understand operating rules” on its advertising platform, Google Ads, and that Google is also unfair in implementing the rules , Resulting in damage to the rights of advertisers and search engine users.
Huge fines caused by monopoly
After issuing a ticket of 150 million euros, the department asked Google to explain the platform details and related operating rules, and should give a reasonable explanation for the suspension of some advertiser accounts. In response, a Google spokesman said recently: The company will appeal this decision.
In France, Google has an absolute dominant position in the search engine market, with more than 90% of Internet search volume, and holds more than 80% of the market share of search-related online advertising markets.
The French Competition Authority pointed out that this leading position also requires that Google should define the operating rules of its advertising platform in an objective, open and fair manner. However, relevant analysts believe that Google’sAdvertising rules fail to meet this standard. According to local French media reports, the rules specified by Google “are not based on any precise definition”, which gives Google ample room to explain its rules according to specific circumstances.
It is worth mentioning that France has repeatedly issued tickets to US Internet giants such as Google . As early as January of this year, the French data protection supervisory agency CNIL has complied with the EU ’s General Data Protection Regulation (hereinafter referred to as “protection regulations”) According to the regulations, a fine of 57 million US dollars (about 50 million euros) was issued to Google. This is also the first fine issued by an EU country under the “protection regulations” that took effect last year.
The cause of the incident was in May 2018. Two non-profit organizations named “None Of Your Business” and “La Quadrature du Net” believe that Google has adopted a “mandatory consent” policy when processing personal data. Successive complaints have been filed against Google. After investigation, the French CNIL concluded that Google had failed to comply with the “protection regulations.”
Relevant EU regulators have stated that Google’s lack of transparency and effective user permissions when targeting ads to users. Relevant analysis points out: Google’s “Basic User Information”, such as data processing purposes, data storage periods or personal data categories used for personalization of advertisements, is excessively spread across multiple documents, and users need to constantly click on buttons and links to access supplementary information.
In other words, Google analyzes and pushes personalized advertisements based on user’s visit data, and when designing its interface and interaction, Google “intentionally” lets users continuously click on various relevant links and find what they want s answer. Not only that, it is also very difficult for ordinary users to understand how their data is used by Google. Because Google always uses broad, intentionally ambiguous words to explain their behavior.
At the same time, Google often “differentiates” when implementing these regulations. Some websites have been suspended for violating Google Ads terms, but others that offer similar services have not been affected. For this special treatment, Google has never given an explanation to the outside world.
In addition, CNIL believes that Google ’s process of obtaining user consent before using data is not in compliance with the norm. By default, Google forces users to log in or register for a Google account. “The terms of this company will tell you that if you don’t have a Google account, your experience will be bad.” CNIL also said that Google should change the line of account creationBecause it is separate from the behavior of setting device license bundling, such bundling is also illegal.
More importantly: If a user chooses to sign up for a Google account, when the page appears asking you to check or cancel certain settings, it will not explain what this means. For example, when a user is asked on the page if they want a personalized push service, it doesn’t tell you that this means that there are many different business sectors-from YouTube to Google Maps and Google Photos, etc., which may all get the user’s Authorization.
For many users, they may not even think of when they proactively “defaulted” to these services.
Friction collision with 10 billion fines
In March of this year, the European Union ’s antitrust agency used Google ’s 1.49 billion euros as a reason for unfair advertising competition. (about 11.3 billion yuan) fine. Google and parent company Alphabet have been accused of violating EU regulations, and signing a contract with a site that uses its AdSense advertising business sets out “restrictive” terms.
EU Competition Commissioner Margaret Vestalg (MargretheVestager) reiterated on Wednesday that some of Google ’s unfairness Competition has prevented its competitors from advertising on many websites.
Vestag emphasized that Google “prevents opportunities for competitors to innovate and competes in the market with its own advantages. For advertisers and website owners, they have less choice and may face more High prices, these prices will be passed on to consumers. “
This is the third time that Google has been issued a huge fine by the European Union since 2017. The current total fines are up to 8.23 billion euros. (about 62.7 billion yuan) , and all grounds for fines are related to the word “monopoly.”
In 2017, the technology giant faced the largest allegation of monopoly abuse in history, because Google manipulated market dominance and hindered competitors from shopping comparison sites to send Google Shopping (Google Shopping) service ranks in front of other brands.
EU antitrust agencies point out that Google uses search engines to direct consumers to its shopping platform to protect itself from the pressure of market competition.
Because of its powerful search capabilities, Google is able to significantly increase its own traffic and thereby generate more clicks and revenue. While other companies were pushed off the search list, traffic levels fell rapidly.
Margaret Vestalg has said that “Google has deprived other companies of the opportunity to compete and innovate on the basis of strength. Most importantly, it deprives European consumers of their right to choose independently.” These allegations Subsequently, an investigation process with an expected validity of seven years was triggered, during which regulators gradually discovered many problems, such as Google systematically improved its own products on the search engine and downgraded the services of other competitors.
Google’s nightmare is not over.
By 2018, the investigation had more discoveries. Google was punished with 4.3 billion euros by EU regulators for violating “protection regulations”. (about 33 billion yuan) ) to a record high.
The European Commission said that Google maintains its dominant position in the Internet search field through the advantages of the Android mobile operating system, including bundling its search engine and Chrome applications into the operating system, to Android device manufacturers and mobile network operators Pay the fees-Ask them to pre-install the Google Search app on their phones.
For a long time, Google has silently added key components to Google Play services software and related protocols. In addition to the anti-fragmentation agreement signed with the Google version of the Android phone maker, most of the current Android phones sold in the world are shipped with Google’s software and service applications.
Conclusion
I believe the fight between the EU and Google will not stop there. In 2020, more tickets will come as scheduled. European Commission ’s Commissioner for Competition Matter Vestalg has said that Google has used Android to strengthen its dominance of its search engine, and at the same time wiped out opportunities for competitors to innovate and compete, preventing consumers from enjoying the benefits of full competition. . This is an illegal act in violation of EU antitrust regulations, and Google must stop it.
Then the question comes: Will Google easily follow suit in the European market?