AdTech

Google is reportedly facing claims for damages to the tune of EUR 25 billion, in two lawsuits set to be filed by publishers over the coming weeks. The Alphabet-owned firm will face action in a Dutch court and the UK's Competition Appeal Tribunal, over the company's digital advertising practices, according to a report. Google has recently been investigated by competition watchdogs across Europe, after publishers have complained that it benefits unfairly over rivals from its adtech business. In the coming weeks, a law firm…

EU antitrust regulators have broadened the scope of their investigation into Alphabet unit Google's digital advertising business by taking over the Portuguese competition watchdog's probe into the same issue. While the European Commission kicked off its investigation in June last year, the Portuguese Competition Authority (AdC) only opened a probe in May this year following a complaint. The Portuguese watchdog said the EU competition authority took over its case on July 27 in view of the scope and impact of the matter in…

In the latest blow to the creepy ‘tracking-ads’ complex, French adtech giant Criteo has been found in breach of European Union data protection regulation and hit with a €60 million sanction (~$65 million) by the country’s national privacy watchdog in a preliminary decision following a multi-year investigation. Digital rights advocacy group Privacy International, which lodged a formal complaint against the surveillance adtech giant back in 2018, when the bloc’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into…

Credit: MicrosoftNetflix has selected Microsoft as the first of its announced advertising-tech partner for the cheaper, ad-supported Netflix subscription plan that's in the works. Microsoft beat out other potential partners, reportedly including Google and Comcast, to win the deal. "Microsoft has the proven ability to support all our advertising needs as we work together to build a new ad-supported offering. More importantly, Microsoft offered the flexibility to innovate over time on both the technology and sales…

Image Source : FREEPIK Google Google reportedly offered the US government to split its ad-tech business, which allows companies to place ads on the Internet and apps, into a separate entity under the Alphabet umbrella, to avoid an antitrust lawsuit. According to the Wall Street Journal, the deal was part of multiple concessions the tech giant offered the US Department of Justice to avoid lawsuits alleging anti-competitive practices. The US Justice Department is conducting a probe into allegations that "Google abuses…

Photo: Grand Warszawski (Shutterstock)In yet another example of T-Mobile being The Worst with its customer’s data, the company announced a new money-making scheme this week: selling its customers’ app download data and web browsing history to advertisers. The package of data is part of the company’s new “App Insights” adtech product that was in beta for the last year but formally rolled out this week. According to AdExchanger, which first reported news of the announcement from the Cannes Festival, the new product will let…

Photo: Justin Sullivan (Getty Images)Another day, another antitrust investigation into a tech giant. This time, it’s Apple: Germany’s competition watchdog on Tuesday announced a new probe into Apple’s slate of anti-tracking tech that the company rolled out last year. The Bundeskartellamt’s investigation is primarily focused on Apple’s App Tracking Transparency Framework (or ATT, for short). For those unfamiliar, ATT is the set of rules that Apple rolled out as part of iOS 14 that require third-party app developers to ask…

Photo: Kevin Hagen (Getty Images)Let’s say you’re a reasonable person who’s reasonably angry with Fox News’ handling of the news. Maybe it’s the way its hosts actively spewed dangerous lies at the heigh of the COVID-19 pandemic, or the way they continue to shamelessly spin the story of the January 6 insurrection. Either way, you’re mad, and you want to do something about it. But where do you start? One nonprofit group offered a pretty straightforward solution this week with a new campaign aimed at the ad dollars keeping…

At least 15 advertising-technology companies had sufficient information to detect that publisher Gannett Co. GCI 3.19% provided inaccurate data to advertisers for more than nine months, but the firms failed to connect the dots and alert their clients, according to researchers who studied the incident.Gannett, owner of USA Today and news outlets in 46 U.S. states, said it unintentionally provided the wrong information in online ad auctions, due to an error that affected…