Google to overhaul ad business, pay fine in French antitrust deal

Google said it will overhaul its global ad business as part of an antitrust settlement with French watchdogs that also included the search giant paying a $268m fine.

Google agreed to pay 220 million euros ($268 million) and change the way its business works across the world after settling a France probe that struck at the heart of its power over online advertising. France’s antitrust agency said Monday the U.S. tech giant used its dominance over ad sales and purchasing on its platforms to distort the market to its own advantage, hurting publishers such as News Corp. “Google took advantage of its vertical integration to skew the process,” Isabelle de Silva, who heads France’s Autorité de la concurrence, said at a Paris press conference on Monday. She described Google’s behavior as “particularly serious.”