The report finds that “the market position of Google and Facebook may potentially be undermining the ability of newspapers and other publishers to produce valuable content as their share of revenues is squeezed by large platforms”.

PPA submitted evidence to the original scope document, and the CMA has now issued an interim report and opened a formal consultation. They are consulting on a range of potential interventions to improve competition in digital advertising markets, including:

• a code of conduct to govern the behaviour of platforms with market power;
• rules to give consumers greater control over their data;
• and interventions to address the sources of the market power of Google and Facebook (including data access remedies, measures to increase interoperability and structural interventions).

The 283-page report highlights that Google enjoys more than 90% share of the £6bn search advertising market in the UK, while Facebook takes almost 50% of the £5bn display advertising market; while making clear that “big is not necessarily bad in these markets”.

Alongside potential limits on innovation and development of new services, knocks on to the price of advertised goods and services, consumer control of data, the report stresses that this matters because online publishers depend on advertising revenues and “if problems in the digital advertising market mean that [publishers] receive a lower share of advertising revenues than they should, this is likely to reduce their incentives and ability to invest in news and other online content, to the detriment of those who use and value such content and to broader society.”

Considering the value of personal data held by the platforms, the report concludes “the inability of smaller platforms and publishers to access user data may therefore create a significant barrier to entry… and a Google trial found UK publishers earned between 50% – 65% less revenue when they were unable to sell personalised advertising but competed with others who could.”

The CMA found that Google and Facebook combined deliver 40% of the traffic to large publishers and acknowledged concerns, raise by the PPA and others that “unexpected changes to the Google search and Facebook News Feed algorithms that have resulted in dramatic reductions in traffic to certain [publishers sites] overnight” concluding “the lack of transparency that we have observed has the potential to create or exacerbate a number of competition problems.”

The CMA state, “that there is a strong argument for the development of a pro-competitive regulatory regime to regulate the activities of online platforms funded by digital advertising” and while they are “not minded” to do so, the report leaves open the option for a full market investigation.

Andrea Coscelli, the regulator’s chief executive, said: “At the end of the study, we will present our findings to the new government as they decide whether and how to regulate what is an increasingly central sector in all our lives.”

The public consultation is open until February 12.

If you have questions, please contact PPA Public Affairs Executive, Amy Owens.