Australia’s antitrust watchdogs are calling for more power to curb Google’s use of internet data to sell targeted ads, joining other regulators who accuse the company of dominating the market at the expense of publishers, advertisers and consumers.
The tech giant announced it would withdraw core services from Australia under a law – also spearheaded by the ACCC – that requires it to pay media companies for content that drives traffic to its search engine.
Google also revealed its advertising arms employed more than 15,000 Australians and contributed $2.45 billion a year to the Australian economy.
In its 200-page report on Google’s dominance of Australian online advertising, the AACC stated that existing laws were insufficient to prevent anti-competitive behaviour, and that more than 90% of clicks on Australian internet ads were at least partly due to Google’s ad offerings in 2020.
The ACCC said the US technology giant benefited greatly from large amounts of internet user data from its search engine, mapping services and YouTube video streaming services and needed to explain publicly how it used that information to sell advertising.
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