Google may be forced to divest from some of its adtech business to remedy what the European Union has called a violation of its anti-trust laws.

Following a two-year investigation, the EU’s competition commission provided Google with a statement of objections, which detailed activities it said would infringe on regulations meant to prevent abuses of a dominant market position.

In particular, the commission focused on Google’s AdX ad exchange, which the company was able to favour due to its dominant market position on both the buy side (through Google Ads and DV360) the sell side (through DoubleClick) of the programmatic landscape. Among the examples the commission offered for how Google exerted preference for AdX was using DoubleClick to inform AdX in advance of the value of the best bid from competitors, as well as using Google Ads and DV360 to mainly place bids on AdX to make it the most attractive ad exchange.

The commission said that a “behavioural remedy” is unlikely to be effective, given Google’s “inherent” conflict of interest, and only divestment from part of its services is likely to address the EU’s competition concerns.

A statement of objections is a step in commission investigations where concerns parties or provided with the objections raised against them, who can then reply in writing or request a hearing to present their position. Following that, if the commission concludes that there is sufficient evidence of an infringement, it can impose a fine of up to 10% of the company’s annual worldwide turnover, as well as adopt decisions prohibiting the conduct in the future.

Google will be given an opportunity to respond to the EU’s preliminary view in the coming months. In a statement, Google’s VP of global ads Dan Taylor said the company disagreed with the EU’s position and would respond accordingly.

“Our advertising technology tools help websites and apps fund their content, and enable businesses of all sizes to effectively reach new customer,” Taylor said in his statement. “Google remains committed to creating value for our publisher and advertiser partners in this highly competitive sector. The commission’s investigation focuses on a narrow aspect of our advertising business and is not new.”

Nearly 80% of Google’s global revenue in 2022 came from advertising, totaling $225 billion USD.