FTC Launches Probe Into Google's Display-Ad Dominance

Google Inc. is facing a new antitrust probe by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission into whether the company is using its leadership in the online display-advertising market to illegally curb competition, people familiar with the matter said. The rumor comes shortly after the FTC finished its long running antitrust investigation into Google's web search and search advertising, where the company was let off the hook.

The F.T.C. said in December 2007 that it would monitor Google's practices in the advertising area. At that time, the commission found that Google's proposed acquisition of DoubleClick, an online advertising company that specialized in display ads, was "unlikely to substantially lessen competition."

However, some of Google's advertising-technology rivals have complained to antitrust authorities that Google has allegedly combined several of its ad-related services for website publishers so that the publishers would have to use them all rather than just one Google service, according to people familiar with the matter. That process is known as "tying" or "bundling."

Meanwhile, Google brings in heaps of cash from display ads, roughly at 15 percent of the entire $15 billion market. This is helped in particular with ads on YouTube.

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