CCI Agrees to Probe Google’s AdTech Stack Over Start-ups' Complaint: What Are the Allegations?

In a partial win for Indian start-ups, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) on Friday ordered a probe against tech giant Google for its Online Display Advertising services called the AdTech Stack.

A group of services that enable the buying and selling of online ads through a bidding process. A non-profit organization, the Alliance of Digital India Foundation (ADIF), whose members include Paytm, Bharat Matrimony, and SHEROES, filed a complaint in 2024, alleging that Google was abusing its dominance in the online advertising market.

Though this was just one part of broader allegations the non-profit made against the Alphabet-owned company, CCI divided the complaints into three parts in two orders on Friday.

Though this was just one part of a broader set of allegations, CCI split the complaints into three distinct cases in its order on Friday. The first case focuses on Google's dominance in the Online Display Advertising market through its AdTech Stack. The Director General of CCI has been tasked to investigate ADIF's claims.

The second case addressed ADIF's complaint about Google's practices in the Online Search Advertising market through Google Ads policies. However, CCI rejected the complaint, stating the issue had already been examined in a 2012 case filed by Matrimony.com.

Finally, Case 3 dealt with allegations, including Google's unfair practices to increase profits in the online search advertising market, its non-transparent ad review process, and the removal of third-party cookies under its ‘Privacy Sandbox’ in the Chrome browser. CCI has yet to issue a final order in this matter.

"We are reviewing the CCI’s orders. We welcome the CCI’s decision to dismiss one part of the complaint. We remain confident that our ongoing work with the CCI will affirm that Google's advertising practices have consistently benefited advertisers, publishers, and users, and are fully compliant with competition law," a Google Spokesperson said.

Case One Clubbed With Earlier Probe

In an order dated August 1, CCI consolidated the first case related to online display advertising services through the Google AdTech Stack with other ongoing investigations. These are complaints filed by digital news publishers in 2021, 2022, and 2024.

The original case against Google's AdTech Stack was filed by the Digital News Publishers Association (DNPA) over its abuse of dominant position in news aggregation in 2021. A year later, CCI started a probe against the big tech firm. Subsequent complaints from the News Broadcasters and Digital Association, the Indian Newspaper Society, and Maulik Surani, co-founder of Capset Infotech, were also merged into the ongoing investigation in 2022 and 2024.

In its earlier order, CCI had noted, "The Commission at this stage is prima facie satisfied that, based on the global presence of Google, as adumbrated supra, it can be reasonably inferred that Google occupies a significant position in the market for online digital advertising intermediation services, as well. The investigation would bring out these aspects in detail.”

Google also argued that the Publishers Case (supra) has been under investigation for three years, and adding another complaint presenting allegations around similar products at this stage of the investigation would not introduce any novel issue.

However, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) disagreed. The Commission noted that the ongoing investigation in the "Publishers Case" is not near its conclusion. Given that ADIF’s allegations overlap with those already under investigation and that ADIF represents key stakeholders in the ecosystem, the Commission decided to club ADIF’s case with the ongoing investigations and ordered that the matter be examined alongside the existing cases.

What Start-ups Alleged

The AdTech Stack is a system of tools that helps businesses buy and sell online ads through automated bidding. Under this, Google’s Google Ad Manager (GAM) is used by website owners to manage and sell ad space on their sites. AdX (Google Ad Exchange) is an online marketplace where advertisers bid for ad space. DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP) was previously used by Google for ad management but has now been integrated into GAM.

For advertisers, Google Display & Video 360 (DV360) is used by larger businesses to buy ad space across various websites and platforms, while Google Ads is used by smaller advertisers to place ads on Google’s search engine, YouTube, and other sites. Together, these tools bring the buying and selling of digital ads into one platform.

As per ADIF, Google operates its services across the entire AdTech supply chain and is the largest provider of AdTech services at each level of the supply chain. In fact, Google is the only company that offers AdTech services across the entire AdTech supply chain.

Further, Google is a dominant player in digital advertising across ad formats. This is due to its market share in terms of ad inventory and revenue, access to large troves of consumer data, cross-linkages across different service offerings, and significant entry barriers that no new player can match or overcome.

ADIF claims that Google ties its Publisher Ad Server (DFP) with Ad Exchange (AdX), forcing publishers to use both through Google Ad Manager (GAM), limiting competition. Additionally, ADIF alleges that Google ties its Demand-Side Platform (DV360) with AdX, restricting advertisers from using other DSPs, and ties access to YouTube’s ad inventory to DV360, excluding competitors.

ADIF accuses Google of self-preferencing by favoring its own services, such as AdX and YouTube, over third-party offerings. It also argues that Google’s bidding systems lack transparency, harming advertisers and publishers. Moreover, Google is accused of using Dynamic Allocation to prioritize its own services in ad auctions, gaining a ‘Last Look’ advantage, and excluding competitors by not participating in header bidding.

Lastly, ADIF claims that Google imposes unfair conditions on publishers and advertisers, forcing them to use its tools, thereby stifling competition and innovation.

As per ADIF, Google’s dominance in the online advertisement markets has led to an anti-competitive environment and harmed the stakeholders of the market, as nascent AdTech competitors are being driven out of the market. Hence, due to the lack of any effective alternative to Google’s services, advertisers and publishers are dependent on Google.

Repeat Offender

Google has faced repeated antitrust scrutiny from the Competition Commission of India (CCI) for alleged abuse of dominance. In October 2022, CCI fined Google Rs 936.44 crore for its Play Store policies, but the penalty was later reduced to Rs 216.69 crore by the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) in March 2023. Google has challenged this ruling in the Supreme Court.

Additionally, Google was fined Rs 1,337.76 crore in October 2022 for abusing its dominant position in the Android mobile device ecosystem, a penalty that was upheld by NCLAT in March 2023. In April 2023, CCI approved Google's settlement in the Android TV antitrust case, where the company agreed to pay Rs 20.24 crore.

Recently, Google proposed allowing all real-money gaming (RMG) apps into the Play Store to resolve ongoing antitrust investigations into its RMG-related policies.