Google has rallied against a potential breakup order from EU antitrust regulators.

In June, the European Commission published a report which found that Google has abused its power, and that its search engine favours the company’s own ads creating a potentially anti-competitive environment. Furthermore, the report said that behavioural improvements would not be enough to rectify the issue and instead recommended that a portion of the company’s ad business is sold off.

Google Ads holds a 28 per cent share of the global ad market and represents more than three quarters of the company’s revenues, amounting to $224.5 billion in 2022.

The company was given several months to respond to the charge, and now Google director Oliver Bethell and its vice president for global ads Dan Taylor have laid out the company’s position, arguing that the measures suggested by the European Commission are disproportionate and would hurt its ad partners.

Speaking to reporters, Bethell said: "We are opposed to divestment. We don't think that's the right outcome for this case. We think this is a tremendously efficient part of our business. And that kind of remedy would be disproportionate in the circumstances and we have explained that to the Commission in our response to their statement of objections.”

The executive continued: "There are many firms that have competing adtech businesses with us, Amazon, Microsoft, Criteo, Comcast and others. They offer ad platforms and tools like ours that cater to both advertisers and publishers. Now it is common to do this in the industry because it benefits both advertisers and publishers."

Taylor added that competitors like Amazon and Microsoft “offer ad platforms and tools like ours that cater to both advertisers and publishers,” and that “it is common to do this in the industry because it benefits both advertisers and publishers."

Ahead of a ruling to be issued next year, Google can ask for a closed hearing to state its case before senior EU and national antitrust officials.

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