Google has made a push to phase out 3rd party tracking cookies (what it's calling its "Privacy Sandbox" initiative), but is facing a challenge from digital marketing companies in Europe. The Sandbox initiative would essentially make it harder for marketers to track users across the web by making it easier for users to block tracking cookies.
A group of digital marketing companies filed an official complaint with the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), asking the Authority to block the implementation of the Sandbox. The coalition of companies, who is calling itself Marketers for an Open Web (MOW), wants to put a hold on the Sandbox to give regulators time to come up with plans for "long term competitive remedies to mitigate [Google's dominance]". The MOW's goal is to the keep an open web model, which they believe is necessary to have a free and competitive media and online economy.
A CMA spokesperson says they will be assessing the issue, whether to open a formal investigation under the Competition Act, and if they need to impose some interim measures to suspend any anti-competitive conduct pending a full investigation. The CMA had already previously concluded that Google and Facebook's market power is so great that it requires a new regulatory approach. Though no decisions on what action to take have been made yet, the CMA has made it clear that, if they find it necessary, they can still act on related competition concerns.
The MOW's director has said that Google's Privacy Sandbox would be an irreversible step towards a "walled garden" (like we discussed in class), where Google would control how businesses and users interact on the Internet. In the meantime, adtech companies are hoping to come up with some alternative to the cookie to sell to regulators as a competition solution.
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