Australia’s antitrust watchdog called for powers to curb Google’s use of Internet data to sell targeted ads, joining other regulators in saying the firm dominates the market to the point of hurting publishers, advertisers and consumers.
The comments, in a report published on Tuesday, puts Australia alongside Europe and Britain where regulators want to stop the Alphabet Inc unit trouncing rival advertisers by using the data it collects from people’s online searches - including on maps and YouTube — to place marketing material.
The US justice department is meanwhile preparing an anti-monopoly lawsuit accusing Google of using its market muscle to hobble advertising rivals, according to media reports.
“The Europeans and the UK are consulting on such laws at the moment and we’re going to be trying to align with them over the next year,” Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) Chair Rod Sims said in a Reuters interview.
“I don’t think we’re far behind.”
Already this year Google said it was poised to withdraw core services from Australia over a law — also recommended by the ACCC — forcing it to pay media companies for content that drives traffic to its search engine. It ultimately inked deals with most major outlets. A Google spokesman was not immediately available for comment about the advertising action.