French competition watchdog warns Google of potential breaches

The Autorité de la concurrence was asked by the minister for the economy, finance and employment to investigate the state of competition in the online advertising sector. It looked at complaints from competitors to Google that the company engaged in "efforts to close off markets", according to a statement from the Autorité.

"Advertisers or internet site editors that are members of the Google advertising syndication network ... in view of their low negotiating power, complain of arbitrary and opaque practices by Google," said the statement.

The Autorité found that Google has a dominant position in the search advertising market. Though this is not a problem under competition laws, having a dominant position places companies under obligations not to behave in certain ways that would be permissible for companies with smaller market shares.

The competition regulator said that some of Google's behaviour could be in breach of competition laws.

"[The Autorité] has identified possible exclusionary conduct intended to discourage, delay or eliminate competitors through procedures that do not consist of merit-based competition (artificially high entry barriers, excessive exclusivity clauses in terms of their field, duration or scope, technical obstacles etc.), and possible operational abuses, whereby the search engine apparently imposes exorbitant conditions on its partners or customers, treats them in a discriminatory manner or refuses to guarantee a minimum degree of transparency in the contractual relations that it establishes with them," said the Autorité's statement.

"Providing its opinion on a consultative basis, the Autorité makes no ruling as to the legality of such practices that would merit, in order to be pursued, often long and complex investigations," it said. "Nevertheless, this analysis framework clearly indicates that competition law can apply limits to Google's actions and provide a response to the competitive stakes pointed out by the actors."

Google did not respond to the claims outlined in the Autorité's statement. A statement from the company merely said that "search ads are one of many options for advertisers. If the price of search ads rises, advertisers can and do switch to other formats, both online and offline. That's the sign of a competitive and dynamic industry".