The DOJ And Eight US States Have Sued Google For Dominating The Internet Ad Industry:
The almost 150-page lawsuit accuses Google of violating US antitrust law and seeks to “stop Google’s anti-competitive plan, unravel Google’s monopolistic hold on the industry, & restore competition in digital ads”.
If the courts decide with the US government, the firm’s advertising industry may split apart. Google is ordered to sell sections of its ad business by the Justice Department.
The lawsuit includes Connecticut, California, Colorado, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Tennessee, and Virginia.
The internet behemoth was sued for search dominance in 2020 under Trump.
Google Responded To The Lawsuit:
Google replied to the complaint on its blog, calling the DOJ’s desire to “unwind” two purchases from over a decade ago “rewriting history at the cost of publisher, advertisers and internet users.”
Google claims the DOJ “mischaracterizes” its advertising tools and that consumers “select to utilize them because they’re effective.” Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, & TikTok are all highlighted for their advertising actions.
“Today’s complaint from the DOJ seeks to select winners & losers in the extremely competitive ad technology sector,” says Dan Taylor, Google’s vice president of worldwide advertisements. It basically repeats the Texas Attorney General’s bogus case, which a federal judge just rejected.
DOJ is repeating a false argument that will hinder innovation, hike advertising rates, and make it difficult for thousands of smaller companies and publications to grow.”
Google expected this. Last year, Google offered to split its advertising auction business, which sells & places adverts on clients’ websites, from its digital advertising arm to avoid a DOJ lawsuit. The branch would’ve been under Alphabet, Google’s parent firm, rather than a distinct entity.
Google’s other concessions didn’t satisfy the DOJ that it wasn’t participating in anti-competitive actions. Google is sued by the DOJ to sell its advertising business. Eight states—including New York, California, Connecticut, and Virginia—joined the action.
Google Was Anti Competitive In Three Areas:
- Nearly all significant website publishers sell ad space using its system.
- It runs the most popular ad-buying tool.
- It runs the biggest publisher-advertiser exchange.
“Website creators make fewer dollars and advertisers pay more,” Mr. Garland said of Google’s plan. Fewer publishers might provide material without memberships, paywalls, or other revenue streams.
Google Utilized Anti-competitive, Exclusionary, And Illegal Conduct:
“Today’s lawsuit charges that Google has employed anti competitive, discriminatory, and criminal behavior to remove or significantly lessen any challenge to its control over digital ad technology solutions,” Attorney General Merrick B. Garland states.
The Department Of justice will rigorously enforce antitrust laws to safeguard consumer, maintain competition, and assure economic justice and opportunity for everyone, regardless of industry or firm.
In 2020, the DOJ sued Google for illegally monopolist search and ad marketplaces. The government requested the court “break Google’s stronghold on search delivery so that competitive rivalry & innovation may take hold.”
Google submitted a move to dismiss an agency complaint earlier this month alleging that Google uses its Android mobile operating system and search market dominance to hinder competition.
This case is part of a government assault on Big Tech. Last May, Senate Republicans and Democrats presented the Competitive market & Visibility in Digital Advertising Act. The plan would prevent corporations handling over $20 billion in internet advertising transactions from participating in different sections of the market, forcing Google and Meta to sell their advertising operations.
The Double-click Acquisition:
“Google used its domination both on the publisher & advertisers sides of the market to stifle competition throughout the advertisement tech stack,” the lawsuit states.
Google’s internal docs allegedly admitted to dominating the operating system ad sales industry to capitalize on high switching costs.
Publishers Use Ad Tech Tools To Generate Advertising Revenue:
The countries added in the statement that website publishers employ ad tech solutions to generate advertising income that supports the construction and maintenance of a dynamic open web, enabling unparalleled access to ideas, creative expression, information, commodities, and services.
“Through this monopolization case, the Justice Department and state Attorneys General seek to restore competitiveness in these crucial markets and secure fair and monetary restitution for the American public.”
The suit alleges that Google has engaged in anti-competitive and exclusionary conduct over the past 15 years by neutralizing or removing ad tech competitors through acquisitions, using its dominance across digital ad markets to force publishers & advertisers to use its products, and preventing the use of competing products.
“In doing so, Google consolidated its dominance in technologies relied on by web-page publishers & digital advertising, in addition to the digital ad exchange that handles ad auctions,” the countries stated in the press release.