Asia Tech Wire (Sep 6) -- A U.K. regulator has issued a preliminary finding of anticompetitive behavior by Google's ad server.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), the UK's antitrust authority, issued a notice on Friday stating that it had made a preliminary finding that Google had abused its dominant position by restricting competition in the UK market through the operation of its publisher ad server and buying tools.

The provisional findings relate to how Google "self-preferenced" its own ad trading platform, a behavior that harmed competition and thus advertisers and publishers.

While the United Kingdom is taking action, the U.S. and European Union agencies have been investigating similar issues.