A lack of competition and transparency in the digital advertising technology supply chain is impacting on publishers, advertisers and consumers according to an interim report from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).
Chair of the ACCC, Rod Sims said the interim report of the Commission’s Digital Advertising Services Inquiry, examined the digital display advertising supply chain in Australia, which it estimated enabled the near instantaneous delivery of $3.4 billion in advertising opportunities on websites and apps each year.
“Ad tech plays an increasingly critical role in the advertising market and the wider digital economy,” Mr Sims said.
“But there is a real lack of competition, choice and transparency in this industry,” he said.
“These issues add to the cost of advertising for businesses, which will ultimately impact the prices paid by consumers.”
Mr Sims said that while there were many ad tech providers in Australia, Google was by far the largest provider of all and the only provider across the supply chain to also sell ad inventory.
“Over time, Google has made a series of acquisitions that have cemented its strong position in the ad tech supply chain,” Mr Sims said.
“[This] is further reinforced by its unrivalled access to data from its wide range of consumer-facing services, including Google Search, Chrome and Android, and from its wide network of trackers on third-party websites and apps,” he said.
Mr Sims said Google’s significant presence across the whole ad tech supply chain, combined with its significant data advantage, which meant it was likely to have the ability and the incentive to preference its own ad tech businesses in ways that affected competition.
He said the ACCC was currently seeking feedback on a series of possible options which are set out in the Interim Report.
He said the options included rules to manage conflicts of interest and self-preferencing; proposals to enhance the ability of ad tech providers to assess the price and quality of services; promoting competition in the industry through boosting data portability; and mandating the breaking up of datasets held by large incumbents.
Mr Sims said feedback on the Interim Report would be received until 26 February.
The ACCC’s 23-page Interim Report, including information on how to have a say, can be accessed at this PS News link.
