EU and UK regulators have started an investigation on Google and Meta’s 2018 ad deal dubbed “Jedi Blue.”
The regulators are exploring whether the “Jedi Blue” deal between the two tech giants curtailed competition in the market for online display advertising.
UK Competition and Markets Authority head Andrea Coscelli says the regulator is concerned that Google and Meta put obstacles in the way of rivals to offer online display ad services to publishers.
The regulators are particularly interested in discovering if the tech giants restricted the uptake of “header bidding service,” which lets publishers sell their online ad space to several users at the same time instead of receiving offers individually.
The European Commissioner in charge of competition policy Margrethe Vestager says many publishers bank on online display advertising to finance their online content. She ways that the Meta and Google deal could have aimed to thwart competition.
Meta has defended the deal with Google and other bidding platforms, saying it has instead raised competition for ad placements. FB: NASDAQ is down -0.34%, GOOGL: NASDAQ is up +1.0%
