The UK's CMA closes its antitrust probe into Google and Meta's alleged Jedi Blue deal on online ads, following a similar decision made by its EU counterparts
Paul Sawers / TechCrunch :
Context & Ripple Effects
This closure ends an eighteen-month arc that began when the EU and UK simultaneously opened probes into the alleged 'Jedi Blue' arrangement between Google and Meta over online advertising auctions, with Brussels additionally examining whether Google acted unilaterally. The EU closed first; the CMA has now followed suit, meaning neither regulator found grounds to act on the coordination theory.
First-order effects
- Google and Meta exit the probe without remedies or commitments attached to Jedi Blue itself — the deal stands as-is under UK competition law.
- The CMA keeps a live front open against Google through the separate ad tech investigation into whether the company illegally favored its own exchange services, which is unaffected by this closure.
Second-order effects
- With the coordination file closed, the CMA's leverage over Google concentrates entirely on the self-preferencing case — the same playbook it used when Amazon agreed to stop using non-public seller data to benefit Amazon Retail in a negotiated settlement rather than a fine.
Third-order effects
- If regulators keep closing collusion-style probes while pursuing conduct cases like Privacy Sandbox oversight commitments and self-preferencing investigations, Big Tech ad tech enforcement settles into a pattern of behavior-based remedies rather than structural intervention.
The trend: Competition authorities are winding down their Big Tech ad-coordination inquiries without penalty, shifting the real battleground to self-preferencing and data-conduct cases where negotiated commitments have proven extractable.