If Googlers were in any doubt of the seriousness of the European Union’s investigation into the search engine’s business practices, the detailed questionnaire sent to advertising agencies this week should set them straight.
As the New York Times reported, Brussels has sent 120 questions to advertisers and agencies, enquiring whether paying for sponsored search results came with a promise of boosting a site’s “natural” Google listings.
The antitrust investigation was prompted by three rival search and listing companies who claim their sites have been demoted in Google’s rankings, unfairly favouring its own services. Google denies applying any such penalties.
The EU’s questions include:
“Please explain whether and, if yes, to what extent your advertising spending with Google has ever had an influence on your ranking in Google’s natural search. Has Google ever mentioned to you that increasing your advertising spending could improve your ranking in Google’s natural search?”
Some blogs have asked whether this is just a fishing expedition by the regulators, and that may be so.
But one advertising company executive, speaking to the FT under condition of anonymity due to the confidential nature of the questionnaire, said that the EU also asked deeply technical questions – about AdWords’ application programming interface, for instance, and how easily advertisers can sync their campaigns with other, non-Google ad platforms.
That suggests a more detailed look at Google than when it acquired DoubleClick, a move many in the ad industry were surprised was allowed by regulators, this person said, having given evidence to the EU at that time too.
“They didn’t really understand what they were talking about [on DoubleClick]. These questionnaires are much more detailed in scope and in question than they were before. They are showing a much greater understanding of how the market works and of the mechanics and getting into the detail the way they didn’t do the previous time.”
Respondents have until mid-February to turn their emails, faxes, meeting notes and other evidence over to the EU.
