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    Google offers U.K. watchdog a role in browser cookie phase-out

    By SHOOTUpdated:No Comments1587 Views
    In this Monday, Nov. 5, 2018 file photo, a woman walks past the logo for Google at the China International Import Expo in Shanghai. Google has on Friday, June 11, 2021 promised to give U.K. regulators a role overseeing its plan to phase out existing ad-tracking technology from its Chrome browser as the tech giant seeks to resolve a competition investigation. The U.K. competition watchdog has been investigating Google's proposals to remove so-called third-party cookies over concerns they would undermine digital ad competition and entrench the company's market power. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, File)

    By Kelvin Chan, Business Writer

    LONDON (AP) --

    Google is offering U.K. regulators a role overseeing its phasing out of ad-tracking technology from its Chrome browser, in a package of commitments the tech giant is proposing to apply globally to head off a competition investigation. 

    The U.K. competition watchdog has been investigating Google's proposals to remove so-called third-party cookies over concerns they would undermine digital ad competition and entrench the company's market power. 

    To address the concerns, Google on Friday offered a set of commitments including giving the Competition and Markets Authority an oversight role as the company designs and develops a replacement technology. 

    "The emergence of tech giants such as Google has presented competition authorities around the world with new challenges that require a new approach," Andrea Coscelli, the watchdog's chief executive, said. 

    The Competition and Markets Authority will work with tech companies to "shape their behaviour and protect competition to the benefit of consumers," he said. 

    Google's promises also include "substantial limits" on how Google will use and combine individual user data for digital ad purposes and a pledge not to discriminate against rivals in favor of its own ad businesses with the new technology. 

    If Google's commitments are accepted, they will be applied globally, the company said in a blog post. 

    Third-party cookies – snippets of code that log user info – are used to help businesses more effectively target advertising and fund free online content such as newspapers. However, they've also been a longstanding source of privacy concerns because they can be used to track users across the internet. 

    Google shook up the digital ad industry with its plan to do away with third-party cookies, which raised fears newer technology would leave even less room for online ad rivals. The plan involves replacing "individual identifiers" with techniques that hide users in large online groups based on their interests while keeping web browsing histories on devices to maintain privacy.

    The competition watchdog will seek feedback until July from other players in the tech and digital ad industry on Google's commitments. Then it will decide whether to accept Google's offer and close the competition case. 

    Google has been busy grappling with a wave tide of antitrust investigations in Europe. The U.K. offer comes days after it resolved another case involving its digital ad business, when it agreed to pay  a 220 million euro ($268 million) to France's antitrust watchdog for abusing its 'dominant' position in online advertising.

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    Tags:ad trackingcookiesGoogleThe Competition and Markets Authority



    Paramount says China’s Tencent withdrew from its Warner Bros bid to avert national security issues

    Thursday, December 11, 2025
    A man rides past the Tencent headquarters in Beijing, China on Aug. 7, 2020. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, File)

    Paramount Skydance says the Chinese gaming and social media giant Tencent Holdings withdrew from its bid to buy Warner Bros Discovery to avert a possible national security review.

    Paramount's revised filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission of its takeover bid said the Chinese company had dropped its $1 billion financing commitment out of concern, since it would be a "non-U.S. equity financing source," that its bid might be subject to a review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, known as CFIUS. That was even though approval by CFIUS or by the Federal Communications Commission was not a condition of the bid.

    The SEC filing, dated Monday, said that foreign sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Qatar, which are providing $24 billion for Paramount's bid, had agreed to give up a right to participate in Warner Bros' management to avoid the additional scrutiny.

    On Monday, Paramount launched a hostile $77.9 billion takeover offer for Warner Bros. Discovery, competing with rival bidder Netflix to buy the company behind HBO, CNN and a famed movie studio.

    Big deals that involve foreign companies are sometimes subject to national security reviews by CFIUS, a U.S. government group chaired by the Treasury Secretary that studies mergers for national-security reasons. It has the power to force companies to change ownership structures or divest completely from the U.S.

    Under former President Joe Biden as well as President Donald Trump, the Treasury Department has sought to strengthen its powers as national security concerns related to foreign investment have increased.

    Tencent is among dozens of Chinese companies that the U.S. Defense Department has included in a list of companies it... Read More

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