Mexico’s antimonopoly organism said Friday that it closed a case against Google without issuing any fine after a process of years determined that the technological giant did not incur in monopolistic practices in the country.
The Federal Economic Competition Commission (Cofece) had accused Google of establishing an effective monopoly in the Mexican digital advertising market. He began his research on Google Mexico in 2020 and issued a site in 2023, starting the procedure test phase.
The research focused on Google advertising services through its search page, as well as through third -party Internet sites.
Cofece said in a statement that its analysis determined that Google users were not required to buy advertising at third -party internet sites for Be able to acquire advertising at the Google search engine. The authority said he closed his case against Google and will not issue sanctions or fines.
“We value Cofece’s decision recognizing that we provide advertisers freedom and control to use our tools in the way that best suits their needs,” A Google spokesman said in response to a request for Reuters comments.
Google faced a fine of up to 8.0% of its annual income in Mexico if the Cofece determined that it incurred monopolistic practices.
The Google matrix, Alphabet, does not include specific income figures for Mexico in its results reports, but according to its annual 2024 report, The company’s profits for its “other Americas” region, which includes Latin America, were around US $ 20.4 billion.
Google faces antitrust challenges worldwide, since regulators fear that your search monopoly will give you an advantage.
In the United States, a district judge ruled last year that Google has an illegal monopoly in online searches and related advertising.
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) and a Coalition of states want Google to share the search data and stop paying billions of dollars to Apple and other smartphone manufacturers to be the predetermined search engine on the new devices.
In another case, a federal judge declared that Google illegally dominated two online advertising technology markets and the DOJ said Google should sell at least its Google Ad ManageA, which includes the company’s editors advertisement server and its advertisement.
