Federal investigators have begun probing whether Google is using its increasingly potent position in the online advertising market to undermine competition, an issue officials have monitored since its acquisition of digital ad company DoubleClick in 2008, said people familiar with the inquiry.The probe — in an exploratory phase, according to these accounts — comes just months after the Federal Trade Commission closed an unrelated investigation of allegations that Google was using its power in the lucrative search business in ways that violated antitrust law.
www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/google-faces-new-ftc-probe-over-display-ads/2013/05/23/7ae029a0-c40f-11e2-914f-a7aba60512a7_story.htmlAlso see:Google advertising under investigation in US
The US federal trade commission is investigating whether Google’s DoubleClick advertising subsidiary has illegally pushed customers to buy its other products, the Guardian has established.The regulator is understood to be looking at whether the display advertiser, acquired by Google in 2008 for $3.1bn (£2bn), is being used to muscle clients into buying adverts on other Google advertising properties such as its text-based AdSense. That could constitute “tying”, which is illegal under antitrust law.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2013/may/24/google-ftc-investigationF.T.C. Is Said to Begin a New Inquiry on Google
Google’s rivals have again prompted antitrust investigators at the Federal Trade Commission to examine the company’s business practices, and staff members have begun a preliminary look at whether Google abuses its market dominance in online display advertising, like the banner ads on Web pages.People who have been contacted in connection with the inquiry said that the F.T.C. had begun asking questions about Google’s practices, specifically whether the company was bundling advertising services together in a way that prohibited rivals from competing for the business of advertisers.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/25/technology/ftc-said-to-have-begun-new-inquiry-on-google.html
Google faces new FTC probe over display ads
Federal investigators have begun probing whether Google is using its increasingly potent position in the online advertising market to undermine competition, an issue officials have monitored since its acquisition of digital ad company DoubleClick in 2008, said people familiar with the inquiry.