Civil society submission to the European Commission on breaking up Google to end the company’s monopoly over digital advertising

The Balanced Economy Project has co-signed a joint submission to the European Commission about its investigation of conduct by Google in the adtech sector. 

The Commission itself has stated how Google’s “inherent conflict of interest” in digital advertising has created a massive power imbalance and distorted Europe’s markets.

We ask Commissioner Vestager, Commissioner-Designate Ribera, Director General Guersent to take this opportunity to break up Google’s search monopoly.

As our submission says:

“For more than a decade, European regulators have allowed a few communications gatekeepers to control how citizens communicate and exchange with one another, pay for and distribute journalism, and debate and share information. Our failure to impose the rule of law over these platforms now threatens our democracies and our basic freedoms. We the undersigned believe that this case provides a major opportunity to correct course – starting with “the mandatory divestment” of Google’s ad tech businesses – to protect our democracy in the digital age.”

The submission is signed by a coalition of civil society groups that is concerned about growing corporate concentration and power.

 Our submission is here.