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“Competition in the ad tech space is fractured, both for accidental and inevitable reasons.” – DOJ complaint
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) and the attorneys general of eight US states have announced that they will sue Google for antitrust violations of the Sherman Act over the tech company’s monopoly on digital advertising technology.
The attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Tennessee and Virginia have joined the suit.
In a 155-page complaint filed in the Eastern District of Virginia, the DOJ and Attorney General explained that Google has “undermined legitimate competition in ad technology by engaging in a systematic campaign to gain widespread control over high-tech devices.” It is used by publishers, advertisers and brokers to optimize digital advertising.
Calling Google an “industry behemoth,” the complaint added that “competition in the ad tech space has been fractured for reasons both accidental and inevitable.”
Among other reliefs, the complaint seeks damages pursuant to 15 USC § 15a. At least a variant of the Google Ads Manager suite, including both Google Publisher Ad Server (DoubleClick for Publishers) and Google Ad Exchange, AdX. and “ordering Google to continue to engage in the anticompetitive practices described herein and not to engage in other practices that have the same purpose and effect as the challenged practices.”
“The United States and its various agencies and departments are open purchasers of web advertising, thereby causing harm to the United States,” the complaint states.
Deputy Attorney General of the United States Lisa O. Monaco said in a DOJ statement that the complaint, filed today, “demonstrates widespread and systematic misconduct in which Google sought to consolidate market power and impede free market competition.”
She added, “Google has done enormous harm to online publishers and advertisers and American consumers in order to make excessive profits.” The lawsuit is a milestone in the department’s efforts to hold big tech companies accountable for violating antitrust laws.
In his statement Difference Commenting on the suit, Google said a similar suit recently filed by the Texas attorney general was dismissed in federal court and that a win for the DOJ would slow innovation and hurt small businesses and publishers.
According to a DOJ press release, the complaint details Google’s total control of the “publisher ad server,” an ad technology tool that “almost every major website publisher uses to sell ads on their websites,” in part by acquiring the market-leading publisher. advertisement
server at the time “double click for printers”; It oversees a major advertiser ad network that helps large and small advertisers buy ad inventory. And “controls the largest ad exchange, a technology that conducts real-time auctions to match online ad buyers and sellers,” as well as through acquisitions.
“Today’s lawsuit seeks to end Google’s long-held monopoly on the digital advertising technologies that content creators use to sell ads and advertisers use to buy ads on the open Internet,” said Jonathan Cantor, Assistant Director General of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division.
“Our complaint lays out detailed allegations that explain how Google has engaged in unsustainable conduct for 15 years – and continues to do so – by driving out competitors, reducing competition, increasing advertising costs, reducing revenue for news publishers and content creators, and stifling innovation and the exchange of information and ideas in the public arena. He delivers.
Image Source: Deposit Photos
Image ID: 363259238
Author: Primakov
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