Google-Facebook Ad Deal Is Investigated by EU, U.K.

The Texas lawsuit argues that Google gave Meta special terms and access to its ad server, a ubiquitous tool for allocating advertising space across the web, in return for its abandoning a rival advertising technology that could have undermined Google’s control over online ads.

Both Google and Meta disputed the characterization of their deal as potentially anticompetitive. They both said it wasn’t an exclusive deal, and Google said Meta didn’t receive special treatment compared with other partners.

The opening of a case is a key procedural step in European competition probes. If the commission or the U.K.’s CMA find evidence of wrongdoing, they can file formal charges; if not, they say they could drop their cases. The two authorities said they plan to cooperate in their investigations.

The two new cases are part of a big wave of antitrust enforcement in Europe. In recent years, the commission has filed formal charges against

Apple Inc.

for allegedly abusing its control over the distribution of music-streaming apps, including Spotify, and against

Amazon.com Inc.

for allegedly using nonpublic data it gathers from third-party sellers to unfairly compete against them. Both companies have denied wrongdoing.

Google and Meta have been major targets. The EU opened a probe last year looking at whether Google abuses its leading role in the advertising-technology sector, while the U.K. has agreed to a settlement with Google related to its plan to stop supporting an advertising technology called third-party cookies from its Chrome browser.

The enforcement of existing laws also comes as big tech companies brace for the broadest expansion in technology regulation in a generation.

The EU is finalizing the texts of two new tech laws, one that seeks to limit potential abuses of dominance and the other that aims to force them to do more policing of online content, both backed by significant fines.

Friday’s cases will examine the 2018 contract between the two companies, in which Meta agreed for its so-called audience network, which displays ads on third-party websites, to participate in a Google ad program called Open Bidding, the authorities said. That Google program is an alternative to a rival technology that allows websites to circumvent Google’s powerful ad exchange when selling ads.

“We’re concerned that Google may have teamed up with Meta to put obstacles in the way of competitors who provide important online display advertising services to publishers,” said Andrea Coscelli, head of the U.K.’s CMA.

Google said Friday that its Open Bidding program has more than 25 partners, and a Meta spokesman said its Google deal is similar to those it has with other bidding platforms.

Write to Sam Schechner at [email protected]