Photo/Illutration Google LLC headquarters (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

The Fair Trade Commission is expected to take its first administrative action against Google LLC based on the Anti-Monopoly Law on suspicion of impeding a rival's search advertising business, sources said.

The FTC has investigated the U.S. search engine giant since 2022 on suspicion that its contract with Japanese internet service provider Yahoo Japan Corp. restricted the latter’s search advertising business for smartphone sites in violation of the law, the sources said.

Google is believed to have submitted a plan to voluntarily halt the alleged antitrust practice and prevent a recurrence to the FTC this month.

The FTC is expected to soon announce the plan after certifying it as workable under its “commitment procedure,” the sources said.

The procedure is a type of administrative action that the antitrust watchdog introduced in 2018 to promptly deal with suspected anti-competitive practices.

Google’s public relations department told The Asahi Shimbun on April 16 that the company has fully cooperated with the FTC’s investigation into the matter and is waiting for the commission’s approval of its corrective plan.

The domestic market of keyword-targeted search advertising is estimated to be worth 1.07 trillion yen ($6.93 billion) as of 2023.

According to an FTC report released in 2021, Google dominated the market with a 70- to 80-percent share, while the remaining portion was held by its only rival Yahoo, which merged with Line Corp. in 2023 to form LY Corp., as of fiscal 2019.

Since 2010, Yahoo has been using Google’s advertisement delivery technology for its search advertisement business for websites other than its own.

In the mid-2010s, Google demanded that Yahoo stop delivering advertisements for smartphone sites, and Yahoo, which relied on Google’s technology, complied, the sources said.

Google retracted the demand against Yahoo in 2022 following the FTC’s investigation, the sources said.

If the FTC approves the commitment plan submitted by Google, the commission will end its investigation without recognizing the company’s behavior as a violation of the Anti-Monopoly Law.

Google will be obligated to fulfill the measures laid out in its plan.

The FTC will not issue a cease-and-desist order or a surcharge payment order, which are normally imposed as punishment for antitrust practices.

(This article was written by Yuji Masuyama, Masayuki Takada and Kyota Tanaka.)

Related News