Google’s ad dominance targeted by a second probe from the UK’s competition watchdog

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has launched a new investigation into Google's advertising business over fears the company is unfairly freezing out competitors. It's the second open probe the CMA has on Google, following the announcement in March of a joint investigation with the EU over alleged collusion between Google and Facebook-owner Meta.

The new investigation will dive deep into the ad tech stack" - the collection of tools that make up the complex online ad market. The CMA notes that Google has strong positions at various levels of the ad tech stack," and is examining three key elements where the US company is the largest player. These include the market used by companies to advertise their ad space; the ad...

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