According to people familiar with the situation, Google parent Alphabet has offered to let competing ad intermediaries place advertising on YouTube to address a key component of an EU antitrust investigation, which might clear the way for it to resolve the issue without paying a punishment.
Last year, the European Commission launched an investigation into whether Google, the world’s largest search and video company, was providing itself an unfair competitive advantage in digital advertising by prohibiting rivals’ and advertisers’ access to user data.
Google’s demand that advertisers use its Ad Manager to display ads on YouTube, as well as prospective limits on how rivals serve ads on YouTube, was pointed out by the EU competition watchdog.
It’s also looking at Google’s demand that advertisers buy YouTube ads through its services Display & Video 360 and Google Ads. During the first quarter of this year, YouTube made $6.9 billion in revenue.
According to a person familiar with the situation, Google has been negotiating solutions with the commission since last year in an attempt to avoid a fine of up to 10% of its global turnover.
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