A third of ads within Google Shopping boxes are coming from providers other than Google

Google Shopping enables fake competition for ads. Source: shutterstock.com

According to Ecommerce News, Google in Europe was forced to open up its shopping service to outside competitors. But now it seems that digital marketing agencies are profiting from the changed auction model instead of the traditional comparison shopping sites: 23% of all ads seem to be from marketing agencies.

In June 2017, Google got a 2.4 billion euros fine by the European Commission, because it abused its dominance and promoted its own comparison service Google Shopping over those of its competitors.?Google split off Google Shopping?and Europe saw?a steady increase?in the number of rival products showing up in Google Shopping’s search ads.

But new research from Searchmetrics suggests that a third of ads within Google Shopping boxes are coming from providers other than Google. But most of these ads and 23% of all ads are from digital marketing agencies. These firms profit from the revamped auction model. As a result, only about 9% of all ads are from the traditional comparison shopping sites, the ones the EU originally intended to support with the antitrust ruling.

It’s no surprise 14 shopping comparison services in Europe wrote an open letter to the EU’s competition commissioner to complain how the changes Google has made, made things even worse for them now. According to them, Google is trying to fill Google Shopping with ‘fake’ comparison shopping site, by reaching out to Google Shopping Ad Agencies to encourage and incentivize them to pose as comparison shopping sites, Searchmetrics?writes.

Their analysis of Google Shopping in?the United Kingdom,?Germany?and?France?shows that many non-Google ads are from digital marketing and advertising agencies. Their role is to manage the ad auction process for merchants. They do however run comparison shopping websites, but they only show products that are sold by the merchants whose bids they manage. So, for a customer looking for the best price, these sites aren’t very relevant.

SEE ALSO:?Google Pay is now available to another bank’s customers