(The U.K., for example, intends to bring in a “pro-competition” reform to tackle Big Tech’s market power too, but has yet to legislate, meaning the CMA is limited to its existing regulatory toolbox.) If so - and if the FCO agrees there’s a problem - that would offer (very likely) the swiftest option for local behavioral relief, given Germany is ahead of other European countries (and the Commission) in updating its domestic competition rules with an eye on curbing tech giants’ market power. So it’s interesting to speculate whether the FCO has received a copy of the German publishers complaint against Privacy Sandbox. Notably, earlier this month the German regular found Mountain View meets the threshold for ex ante regulatory interventions to be applicable - which quickly led to an offer from Google to try to settle the News Showcase complaint. In Germany, Google/Alphabet currently has two open antitrust investigations against it by the country’s Federal Cartel Office (FCO): One focused on its News Showcase product and another digging into its data terms. Google won’t end support for tracking cookies unless UK’s competition watchdog agrees competition regulator on Sandbox - such as around testing and taking market feedback - which suggests, contrary to Google’s background claims, that a lack of openness is a particular bone of contention for advertisers and publishers (at least in the U.K. Moreover, a perceived lack of transparency/openness in Google’s approach has also led the company to dial up the commitments it has offered the U.K. The tech giant also claimed its Privacy Sandbox proposal are being designed in the open - in consultation with a cross-section of the web community, including publishers.Īlthough, here again, there’s no doubt Google remains in the driving seat, directing and steering these proposals (and what ‘consultation’ there is and has been to date, certainly does not sum to co-design, let alone Google taking a more minor role in shaping the future). (Albeit, Google’s market power here, via Chrome, is far more substantial than alternative browsers like Firefox and Safari.) It also pointed out that other browsers have already withdrawn support for tracking cookies. In further background remarks, the tech giant argued that web users’ expectations and regulations are both changing so there’s a need for adtech infrastructure to adapt. “People want a more private, secure web and we’ve proposed ideas to help build it with new digital advertising tools to protect privacy and prevent covert tracking, while supporting a thriving ad-funded open web.” In a statement responding to the report of the complaint, a Google spokesperson said: Per the FT’s report of the document, the companies argue they must be allowed to continue to ask users for consent to process their data for ad targeting “without Google capturing this decision” as well as urging that “Google must respect the relationship between publishers and users without interfering”. Indeed, the regulatory attention to Privacy Sandbox has already contributed to delay the implementation timeline by up to a year, as Google said last summer that the switch would not now happen until the second half of 2023 vs an earlier announcement, in January 2020, when it said it wanted to make the shift “within two years”.Īt least not judging by the 108-page complaint reviewed by the FT - in which it reports that Axel Springer, along with the country’s federal association of digital publishers and a number of others argue the planned changes will damage their businesses while allowing Google’s ads-based search business unaffected as it will collect to be able to collect vast amounts of user data. The U.K.’s competition watchdog, the CMA, has been considering similar complaints since 2020 - and is in the process of consulting on a series of behavioral and oper ational commitments offered by Google in a bid to avoid a full ban on the migration in that market. The Financial Times reports that hundreds of German publishers, advertisers and media and industry groups - including local powerhouse Axel Springer (which publishes titles like Bild and Politico) - have submitted a complaint to the bloc’s competition chief, Margrethe Vestager, arguing that Google’s plan to phase out support for third party cookies from its Chrome browser and replace tracking infrastructure with alternative (and it claims) more privacy-respecting alternatives for ad targeting breaches EU competition law. German publishers are the latest to band together to try to derail or at least delay Google’s “Privacy Sandbox” plan to end support for tracking cookies in Chrome via a complaint to the European Commission.
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