The European Union took aim at Google’s most-lucrative business Wednesday over advertising technology intended to crush competition.
The Alphabet Inc. unit favors its own ad exchange program over rivals and promotes the company’s central role in the ad tech supply chain while charging high fees for its service, Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s competition commissioner, said.
She also said Google may be forced to divest part its ad sales services if the commission decides that the company acted illegally
Market reaction to the announcement was relatively low, with Google shares down 0.2% in premarket trading.