EU antitrust regulator launches preliminary investigations into how Google and Facebook gather, process, use, and monetize data for advertising purposes
drumbeats are again building for #antitrust officials to take a closer look at Big Tech's use of data. Here's what's at stake https://www.politico.eu/.... But if you think this will be a slamdunk case, think again https://www.politico.eu/... Chris Hoofnagle / @hoofnagle : FT: UK competition regulator seeks comment on Google's acquisition of Looker and whether it might cause a “substantial lessening of competition”. https://www.ft.com/... Emre Peker / @wsjemre : New #EU Commission, New @Google Investigation? Brussels sets sights on tech giant's data collection as competition chief @vestager broadens powers: https://www.reuters.com/... Rasmus Kleis Nielsen / @rasmus_kleis : “EU antitrust regulators are investigating Google's collection of data, the European Commission told Reuters on Saturday, suggesting the world's most popular internet search engine remains in its sights despite record fines in recent years.” https://www.reuters.com/... @orskov : EU antitrust regulators have initiated an investigating into Google's collection of data, focusing on data related to local search services, online advertising, online ad targeting services, login services, web browsers https://www.reuters.com/... Subrahmanyam Kvj / @sub8u : How long before organizations start programs to actively limit the amount of data they collect - Collection driven by need, not by ability? “EU antitrust regulators say they are investigating Google's data collection” https://www.reuters.com/... @hntweets : EU investigates Google data collection practices: https://www.engadget.com/... Comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/ ... @adivawoman : Competition enforcers on both sides of the Atlantic are now looking into how dominant tech companies use and monetise data. https://www.reuters.com/... Mike Dudas / @mdudas : At this rate, tech giants are going to employ more lawyers than engineers https://www.reuters.com/... @honestduane : Probably because Google's main ad business violates #GDPR by design as part of the round robin ad bidding process that happens millions of times a day every time an advert is shown by google. This is going to be fun to watch. https://twitter.com/... Fabio Chiusi / @fabiochiusi : “The Commission has sent out questionnaires as part of a preliminary investigation into Google's practices relating to Google's collection and use of data. The preliminary investigation is ongoing,” the EU regulator told Reuters in an email. https://twitter.com/... Andrew Knight / @andrewknight226 : One of the reasons I support the EU is because it has the power to keep international corporations in check. From tax evasion to dodgy data mining etc. https://www.reuters.com/... See also Mediagazer
Context & Ripple Effects
Brussels is reopening a file it has worked for years: as early as 2015, the Commission was asking companies about Google's ad contracts and scraping while deepening its antitrust case. The new preliminary probes into how Google and Facebook gather, process, use, and monetize data for advertising arrive under competition chief Margrethe Vestager's incoming Commission, and they land just months after the [[a:943461|UK competition agency launched its own inquiry into whether the two firms' data collection entrenches dominance in advertising]].
What makes this round different is scope: rather than a single conduct allegation, the EU is examining the full data-for-ads pipeline itself — collection, processing, usage, monetization — at both companies simultaneously, with London already running a parallel track.
First-order effects
- Google and Facebook now face information-gathering demands from two European regulators at once — Brussels on the whole data-advertising pipeline, and the UK CMA on abuse of ad-market power — forcing legal and compliance resources onto parallel fronts.
- The Looker acquisition sits inside this dragnet too: the UK regulator is soliciting comment on whether the deal could substantially lessen competition, so Google must defend both its existing data practices and its next purchases.
Second-order effects
- Adtech rivals and publishers gain a regulatory channel to feed evidence into the probes, effectively outsourcing their competitive grievances to Brussels and London rather than litigating them alone.
- If the EU moves from preliminary to formal proceedings — as it did in 2021 when it opened an investigation into Google favoring its own display ad tech — advertisers and intermediaries face pressure to re-plan around potential remedies that constrain how first-party data can be fused into ad products.
Third-order effects
- A sustained EU-UK dual track points toward data access and interoperability remedies replacing fines as the endgame — reshaping the ad market around what dominant platforms may combine, not merely what they must pay.
- The pattern of regulators probing the same firms' data practices in overlapping jurisdictions suggests structural separation between platforms' data assets and their ad businesses becomes the live policy question for the sector.
The trend: European competition authorities are shifting from case-by-case antitrust enforcement toward systemic scrutiny of how Big Tech converts user data into advertising dominance.