Google fined €220m by French competition watchdog over online advertising market By Euronews • Updated: 04/10/2021 Google has been fined €220 million by France's competition authority for favouring its own services in online advertising. The tech giant was found to have given "preferential treatment" to Google's own "proprietary technologies" in digital adverts, the authority said. Google has not contested the facts and the fine was agreed as part of a settlement procedure, it added. The company also said it had agreed with the French watchdog on a number of solutions to improve its online advertising market. In a blog post, Google said that changes would be made over the coming months, and would eventually be rolled out globally. Google maintains a dominant position in the online advertising market and is facing antitrust lawsuits from authorities in several countries. What was the French complaint about? The case against Google over its online advertising market was first brought by three media organisations; News Corp, the Le Figaro group and the Rossel La Voix group. Le Figaro later withdrew from the procedure. The companies had complained that Google was promoting its own services under the brand name Google Ad Manager. The decision was referred to France's competition authority, which confirmed in a statement that Google had agreed to the €220 million fine. Goog