The advertising cooperation agreement reached between Google and Facebook was exposed by regulators
Prior to this, some states in the United States united in antitrust lawsuits against Google and Facebook. Regulators said that Google and Facebook reached an illegal agreement to manipulate advertising prices.
According to previous news, when Facebook was preparing to enter the online advertising industry, Google was worried that its market share would be eroded, so Google and Facebook reached a special business agreement at that time.
In the agreement, Google promised to give Facebook more options for high-quality advertising traffic, and Facebook will distribute this advertising traffic to other companies through its own advertising network.
The Wall Street Journal recently received approval to view part of the agreement from the Federal District Court of Texas in the United States, including regulatory approvals for the agreement.
What concerns regulators the most in the agreement is that Google opens its ad server to Facebook, which can be used to allocate advertising space and traffic.
Regulators claim that this is equivalent to Google’s right to choose all of Facebook’s advertising and traffic. In fact, it will give Facebook all the best advertising locations and traffic.
In this competition, other online advertising companies cannot compete fairly with Facebook, and Facebook owns these high-quality advertising positions and the final distribution authority of traffic.
Regulators say that these actions by Google harm competition and deprive advertisers, publishers, and consumers of the ability to improve quality, increase transparency, and lower prices.
At present, the attorney generals of more than ten states in the United States have joined forces to initiate antitrust lawsuits, and Google and others have always stated that these agreements are legal and there is no illegal act.
In addition to state antitrust lawsuits, the US Department of Justice has also initiated antitrust lawsuits against Google before, and there may be more antitrust lawsuits against Google.
