WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department and eight states filed antitrust lawsuits against Google on Tuesday. It seeks to shatter any alleged monopoly on the entire online advertising ecosystem as a detrimental burden for advertisers, consumers and even the U.S. government.
the government, Complaint Google has tried to force advertisers to use its own products by “disabling or eliminating” rivals in the online advertising market through acquisitions and making it difficult to use competitors’ products. It’s part of a slow, albeit new, move by the US to curb the tech giants that have seen nearly unlimited growth for years.
“Monopolies threaten the free and fair markets on which our economy is based. They stifle innovation, hurt producers and workers, and increase costs for consumers,” Merrick said. Attorney General Garland said at a news conference on Tuesday.
According to Garland, for 15 years, Google has “pursued anti-competitive behavior,” thwarting the rise of competing technologies, manipulating the mechanics of online ad auctions, and giving advertisers and publishers access to Google’s tools. have forced the use of In doing so, he added, Google “engaged in exclusionary conduct” that “seriously undermines, if not destroys,” competition in the ad tech industry.
The lawsuit, the latest lawsuit filed by the government against Google, accuses the company of unlawfully monopolizing the way advertising is served online by excluding competitors. Google Ads Manager allows large publishers with a lot of direct sales to manage their ads. Ad exchanges, on the other hand, are real-time marketplaces for buying and selling online display advertising.
According to Garland, Google controls the technology most major website publishers use to sell ad space and the largest ad exchange that connects publishers and advertisers when ad space is sold. . As a result, “website creators earn less and advertisers pay more,” he added.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, sees Google sell its businesses, including buyers, sellers, and auctioneers of digital display advertising, to sell Google’s core business of search and other businesses such as YouTube, Gmail, and the cloud. We are requesting that you leave our products and services. service.
Digital advertising now accounts for about 80%. google earnings, and generally support other less profitable initiatives. However, like Facebook’s parent company Meta, the company has lost market share in recent years as smaller rivals have taken over the majority of the online advertising market. Additionally, the overall online advertising environment market is cooling as advertisers curb spending and prepare for a potential recession.
Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc., said in a statement that the lawsuit “replicates a flawed argument that slows down technological innovation, drives up advertising costs and makes growth difficult for thousands of small businesses and publishers. It’s a thing,’ he said.
Tuesday’s lawsuit comes as the U.S. government increasingly seeks to curb Big Tech’s dominance, but such legal action could take years to complete, and Congress said the tech It has not passed recent legislation that seeks to curb the influence of the industry’s biggest players.
The European Union is more aggressive.that is antitrust investigation To Google’s digital advertising dominance in 2021. UK and European regulators are also investigating agreements for online display advertising services. Violation rules between Google and Meta About fair competition.
The Internet services industry group, of which Google is a member, said the lawsuit and its “fundamental structural remedies” were unjustifiable.
Matt Schruers, president of the Computer & Communications Industry Association, said advertising competition is fierce, and that “the government’s argument that digital advertising does not compete with print, broadcast, or out-of-home advertising does not make sense.”
Dina Srinivasan, a fellow at Yale University and an adtech expert, said the lawsuit was “massive.” That’s because the lawsuit is a bipartisan legal assault against Google that unites the entire country, including state and federal governments.
Regarding the current online advertising market, Mr. Srinivasan said: broken and completely inefficientThe fact that intermediaries take 30% to 50% of each ad transaction is “a lunatic inefficiency baked into the US economy.” She calls it “free internet and huge taxes on consumers as a whole. It also directly affects the viability of the free press.”
As with many highly complex technology markets, it took federal and state regulators and policymakers time to catch up and understand the online advertising market. Srinivasan noted that it took him a decade before they realized the dangers of high-speed trading in financial markets and began adopting measures to discourage it.
Google accounts for nearly 29% of the US digital advertising market. This includes all advertisements that people see on their computers. According to research firm Insider Intelligence, by 2022, phones, tablets, and other Internet-connected devices. Facebook’s parent company Meta is his number two, with nearly 20% of his share of the market. Amazon grew by over 11%, making him the third fastest growing segment.
Insider estimates that Google and Meta’s share of the advertising market will both decline, while rivals such as Amazon and TikTok are expected to rise.
This is the latest lawsuit filed against Google by the Department of Justice or local state governments. For example, in October 2020, the Trump administration and her 11 state attorneys general sued Google for violating antitrust laws, alleging anticompetitive practices in the search and search advertising markets.
Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Cantor, the DOJ’s chief antitrust officer, was asked why the DOJ would file a lawsuit when similar complaints had already been filed by states.
Tuesday’s lawsuit essentially aligns the Biden administration and new states with the 35 states and the District of Columbia that sued Google over the exact same issue in December 2020.
States participating in the lawsuit include California, Virginia, Connecticut, Colorado, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Tennessee.
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AP Technology Writer Ortutay reports from San Francisco and Bajak from Boston. AP Technology Writer Matt O’Brien contributed to this report.
