“Google’s plans have very far-reaching negative consequences for the media and advertising industry,” says Bernd Nauen from the ZAW.
(Photo: Getty Images)
Brussels, Dusseldorf The German media and advertising industry fears a drop in sales due to a change in the Chrome web browser announced by Google. “Many audiovisual media and journalistic offerings would not be financially viable without data-based advertising,” says a letter from associations to the EU Commission.
The background to this is the search engine giant’s plans to block third-party cookies in Chrome. Almost every website stores files on users’ computers, often these files come from third parties. These can also be companies that collect data in order to use them to display targeted advertising.
“Google’s plans have very far-reaching negative consequences for the media and advertising industry because they take away an important pillar for legal data processing from the companies, while Google itself is not affected by the changes,” said Bernd Nauen, general manager of the Central Association of the German Advertising Industry (ZAW ), the Handelsblatt. Without data-based advertising, advertisers would not be able to target their customers precisely.
The ZAW is one of eight associations of the local media and communications industry that have jointly approached the commission. This also includes the interest groups of newspaper publishers and media agencies. Nauen fears that consumers will have less choice of online offers in the future and will have to pay more for content.
Top jobs of the day
Find the best jobs now and
be notified by email.
So far, users have been able to set which type of cookies they accept when they visit a website for the first time. This is a consequence of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Certain browsers independently block cookies that do not come from the website you are visiting but from other websites. The feature is advertised as privacy protection.
However, Chrome is an extremely popular browser, so such a measure would affect many more users. Depending on the analysis, the market share of the Google browser is 45 to over 60 percent. A dominant position could therefore exist. In this case, the competition authorities could check whether this position is being exploited. The associations have already filed a complaint against Apple with the Federal Cartel Office against the procedure.
“There is nothing wrong with Google wanting to position itself with customers with data protection measures. But with Chrome, Google has cross-market importance and is using its market power in a way that distorts competition,” says Nauen. “In a way, the company is setting itself up as a substitute legislator,” criticizes the industry.
Google also wants to continue to enable personalized advertising, just in a different way. To do this, the group wants to analyze the surfing behavior of the users themselves and then divide them into “cohorts” based on their interests. Advertisers should be able to display their ads to these groups.
Also read on the topic:
Data about users continues to be collected, it just no longer ends up with the advertisers, but in Google’s databases. “Google prefers itself because the company continues to collect data, but other companies cut the important connection to the user,” says Nauen.
The EU Commission has been investigating the move announced by Google since June 2021 along with other practices in the advertising market that could be illegal. The letter from the German associations does not trigger a new process at the Commission, but is intended as a submission for this investigation.
A Google spokeswoman defended her company’s plan: “People want a more private, safer internet, which is why we have proposed ideas on how to build it with new digital advertising tools,” she said. “The goal is to protect user privacy, prevent covert tracking, while maintaining a thriving, ad-supported, open web.”
The associations want to ensure that Google is not allowed to block cookies from third parties. If the EU Commission considers this to be permissible, the associations at least want to achieve “that Google provides viable alternatives to the current technology that do not have any consequences that distort competition,” says Nauen.
A new EU law called the “Digital Markets Act”, or “DMA” for short, is intended to make it easier to prevent market-distorting behavior by large digital corporations in the future. However, the law will probably come into force in 2023 at the earliest.
“The Digital Markets Act will ensure that the gatekeepers do not abuse their dominant position in the market,” said Andreas Schwab (CDU), member of the European Parliament. “The Commission must now be careful that these corporations do not quickly use their leeway before the DMA comes into force.”
More: European companies are threatened with cease and desist orders from the data protection officer. The precedent is now set by the EU Parliament, of all people