EU and UK open antitrust probes into Google and Meta over 2018 online ad deal

• Two parallel probes will look into “Jedi Blue” deal between Google and Facebook, signed in 2018

• Companies defended themselves and said it was a non-exclusive agreement

Antitrust regulators in the European Union and the United Kingdom have opened probes into Alphabet ,Inc’s. (GOOGL) Google and Meta Platforms ,Inc .FB) over a 2018 ad deal.

The two parallel probes, announced Friday, will investigate the so-called “Jedi Blue” agreement between the two tech giants and whether the deal weakened competition in the online advertising market.