Italy’s antitrust authority scrutinizes Google over alleged advertising market abuse

On Wednesday, Italy’s antitrust authority reported that it would investigate Alphabet’s Google (GOOGL.O) for alleged abuse of its Italian online display advertising market.

Google Italy’s revenue from its online advertising market was worth 3.3 billion Euros in 2019. It also includes display advertising such as banner ads and other advertising formats.

“The absence of competition in the intermediation of digital advertising, in fact, might reduce the resources allocated to website producers and publishers, thus impoverishing the quality of content directed to end customers,” Italian Competition Authority (AGCM) said.

“At the same time, Google has allegedly used tracking elements enabling its advertising intermediation services to achieve a targeting capability that some equally efficient competitors are unable to replicate,” the public agency added.