MOW describes itself as “a coalition of leading technology and publishing companies”. The group is asking the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to delay a major technology release by Google that would cement its dominance of online business and frustrate bids by regulators around the world to ensure fair competition on the internet.

MOW, which says that it campaigns against “Google’s attempts to control the open web”, has written to the CMA asking it to impose a legal block on Google to delay the launch of its so-called “Privacy Sandbox” technology, which it says will remove login, advertising and other features from the open web and place them under Google’s control. MOW says that Google’s dominant Chrome browser and Chromium developer tools (which together run on about 72% of UK computers) are currently being modified to give Google even greater control over how publishers, advertisers and other digital businesses can operate on the web. These changes, known as the “Privacy Sandbox”, are scheduled for full implementation in early 2021.

Critics say that, despite its name, Google’s new technology has nothing to do with privacy, and everything to do with moving the whole digital advertising industry off the open web, where it supports numerous innovative technology businesses and allows publishers and advertisers to optimise revenue by dealing with the most efficient partners, and into the walled garden of its Chrome browser, where it would be beyond the reach of regulators.

MOW says that the changes will deny news publishers access to the cookies they use to sell advertising, thereby cutting their revenues by an estimated two-thirds (as the CMA found in its online platforms and digital advertising market study (see item above)), with smaller regional titles hardest hit, journalist’s jobs lost, and reliable, fact-checked online news under greater threat than ever.

MOW’s letter is asking for the introduction of Privacy Sandbox to be delayed until long-term competitive remedies are put in place. To read the MOW’s press release in full, click here.