The ACCC Digital Platforms Inquiry: what it means for the advertising industry

The ACCC is concerned about the state of competition in the digital advertising industry. That means that everyone in the industry should be concerned too.

First, there is Google and Facebook's stranglehold on digital advertising markets. The ACCC is suspicious that they will use their dominance to give themselves an unfair advantage. The suspicion is based largely on their form overseas. For example, in Europe the EC has fined Google €1.49B for limiting websites' ability to use competitors to its Adsense products. In the UK, a report suggests that Facebook limited competitor apps' access to data.

The ACCC can see all the ways that Google and Facebook have the ability and incentive to take advantage of their power in search and display advertising. Favouring their own inventory, ranking their own services higher in search and social media feeds, refusing rivals access to key apps like the Google Play Store, favouring their advertisers in organic search results or