Google's Dominance Of The Australian Ad Market Is Hurting Competitors, Here's Why

JAKARTA - Google has dominated the Australian online advertising market to the detriment of publishers, advertisers and ultimately consumers. Now the country's antitrust regulator, is calling for new rules to control the Big Tech giant.

A report by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), published on Tuesday, 28 September, said more than 90% of clicks on ads traded through Australia's "advertising technology" supply chain passed through at least one Google service in 2020.

A Google spokesperson was not immediately available for comment by Reuters.

"Google has used its vertically integrated position to operate its ad technology services in a way that, over time, has made the ad technology industry less competitive," ACCC Chairman Rod Sims said in a statement, released alongside the report.

"This behavior has helped Google to establish and solidify its dominant position in the ad technology supply chain. We recommend that rules be considered to manage conflicts of interest, prevent anti-competitive self-preferences, and ensure rival ad technology providers can compete on the basis of their advantages," said Sims. .

The Alphabet Inc-owned company benefits from vast amounts of internet user data from search engine, mapping and video streaming service YouTube, and should be more transparent about how it uses this information to sell ads, regulators said.

The regulator said it wanted special powers to address imbalances in advertisers' access to consumer data, such as rules that force them to segregate data between business units or share data with competitors.

The "advertising technology" report is part of the ACCC's broader examination of online platforms that earlier this year prompted Google to threaten to withdraw core services from the country because of laws that force it to pay for media content that drives traffic to its websites.