Belgian watchdog opens probe into Google's online ad price practices

Reuters

Fri, February 27, 2026 astatine 8:21 AM CST 1 min read

Feb 27 (Reuters) - Belgium's contention watchdog said connected Friday it had opened ‌an probe into the merchantability ‌of online ads by Google.

* The contention authorities ​said they had "seriousindications" that Google's exemplary for selling online ads was inbreach of antitrust rules, arsenic the institution appeared ‌to beryllium ⁠abusingits marketplace power. * The probe is successful a preliminary signifier ⁠and theoutcome is unclear, they said. * Google is already the taxable of respective ​European Unionantitrust ​investigations and ​has been fined ‌billions of euros inEurope for antitrust violations successful caller years. * Earlier this month, successful a missive to advertisers, Googlesaid it besides risked different antitrust probe by ‌theEuropean Commission implicit ​concerns it whitethorn beryllium ​unfairly drivingonline ​advertising prices higher. * Google, which ‌dominates the multibillion-dollar onlineadvertising ​market, said ​at the clip that Google Search ads helpsmall businesses to vie with ​the ‌biggest brands and support theweb escaped ​for everyone.

(Reporting by Bart Meijer. Editing ​by Mark Potter)