Google and Meta Reportedly Had ‘Secret Deal’ To Target Ads To Teens

Alphabet’s (GOOGL) Google and Meta Platforms (META) reportedly had a “secret deal” to target Instagram advertisements to teenagers on YouTube.

According to the Financial Times, Google had a marketing project aiming to pull 13- to 17-year-old YouTube users into Meta’s Instagram, circumventing the search giant’s rules barring personalized ads to those under 18.

The companies partnered with Spark Foundry for a pilot marketing program in Canada between February and April, and then had a trial in the U.S. in May, with plans to expand internationally and also promote Meta’s Facebook platform, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter.

Google Says It Prohibits Personalized Ads To Those Under 18

“We prohibit ads being personalized to people under 18, period. These policies go well beyond what is required and are supported by technical safeguards,” a Google spokesperson told Investopedia. “We’ve confirmed that these safeguards worked properly here. We’ll also be taking additional action to reinforce with sales representatives that they must not help advertisers or agencies run campaigns attempting to work around our policies.”

Meta didn’t immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

Unusual Partnership Comes as Big Tech Firms Face Antitrust Scrutiny

The collaboration between Google and Meta marks an unusual partnership by usually cutthroat rivals amid increasing scrutiny by regulators.

This week, a federal judge ruled that Google broke antitrust law by holding a monopoly with Google Search, a decision the search giant said it plans to appeal. Last month, Meta’s practice of “pay or consent” advertising on its products like Instagram and Facebook was found to have preliminarily violated the European Union’s (EU) new Digital Markets Act (DMA), the European Commission said.

Shares of Alphabet and Meta were both up over 2% as of 10:45 a.m. ET Thursday.