Report from Bloomberg
In Brief – Google is the target of heightened scrutiny by the European Commission antitrust officials over concerns that the digital giant may be illegally rigging the cost of advertising on its search engine. A February 9 letter and request for information sent by the commission to AdTech market participants asks about Google’s dominance across several online advertising markets and evidence backing the regulator’s suspicion that Google is “artificially increasing the clearing price” of search ad auctions “to the detriment of advertisers”. The EU Commission declined to comment on the early-stage market investigation while Google said, “Google Search ads help small businesses compete with the biggest brands, driving economic growth and keeping the web free for everyone.”
US Department of Justice Won’t Help French Prosecutors Probe Musk’s X
Report from the Wall Street Journal In Brief – The US Justice Department is declining to assist French authorities investigating X, describing the effort as a politically motivated misuse of the criminal justice system to regulate online speech in a way that conflicts...