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UK: MP wants Zuckerberg to answer questions about adtech operations

By  |  October 18, 2018
According to TechCrunch, a British Conservative politician has made a public call for the UK’s competition regulator to look into Facebook’s adtech operations. Damian Collins, the chair of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee made the suggestion in a tweet that referenced a news article reporting on a US class action lawsuit against Facebook.
The tweet read:

According to TechCrunch, advertisers in the US lawsuit allege Facebook knowingly inflated video viewing stats and thus mislead them into spending more money on its ad platform than they otherwise would have.

But Facebook disputes the allegations, claiming the lawsuit is “without merit”. It has also filed a motion to dismiss the claims of ad fraud.

A spokeswoman for the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) also declined to comment when asked whether it has any concerns related to practices in the adtech sector.

 And earlier this month the CMA’s CEO, Andrea Coscelli, told the Committee it is indeed considering doing so, if only it can carve out the resources to do so — saying he was worried about “potential gaps” in the regulatory framework around competition and consumer issues.

“A month ago, this Committee asked us to look at digital advertising. That is something we are actively considering, subject to Brexit in the next few weeks, because it has a big resource implication for us,” said Coscelli on October 9. “It is certainly something where we are interested in getting involved. If we did, we would work closely with Ofcom and give serious thought to the regulatory framework in that context.”

 Full Content: Tech Crunch
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