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DOJ sues Google for allegedly monopolizing digital advertising

The subsidiary of Alphabet Inc. has been committing alleged anti-competitive infringements for 15 years. Justice sued the company in 2020 and the trial will be held in September.

Google

Sede de Google en Mountain View, California / Wikimedia Commons

Published by
Alejandro Baños

The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a lawsuit against Google for monopolizing digital advertising technologies. The complaint was joined by the Attorneys General of Colorado, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Virginia, and California, the state where Big Tech was founded.

It has not been the desired start to the year for the Alphabet Inc. subsidiary. The Republican Party claims it will push for a House of Representatives investigation into alleged White House influence on Google, its crisis deepened when we learned that the company had to lay off 12,000 workers. Now Justice is stalking the world's most famous search engine.

The plaintiffs allege that Google has violated the first two sections of the Sherman Act. These sections of the first federal measure, published in 1890, limit the monopolization of markets to contemplate conduct that is anticompetitive and prohibits it.

"Google monopolizes key digital advertising technologies, collectively referred to as the ad tech stack, that website publishers depend on to sell ads and that advertisers rely on to buy ads and reach potential customers," the DOJ said in the lawsuit. "The DOJ and state attorneys general seek to restore competition in these important markets and obtain equitable and monetary relief on behalf of the American public."

What are the alleged anticompetitive infringements?

The DOJ listed the possible anticompetitive infringements that Google would be committing:

- Acquiring competitors to gain control over key digital advertising tools used by website publishers to sell advertising space.

- Blocking publishers' access to websites.

- Distortion of competition in auctions.

- Manipulation of auctions in order to benefit the company over the competition.

15 years of alleged violations

Both the DOJ and the Attorneys General emphasize that Google's alleged fraudulent behavior is nothing new, as its anticompetitive conduct has been going on for the past 15 years. Jonathan Kanter, Assistant Attorney General of the DOJ's Antitrust Division, explained why the decision was made to file this lawsuit:

Today’s lawsuit seeks to hold Google to account for its longstanding monopolies in digital advertising technologies that content creators use to sell ads and advertisers used to buy ads on the open internet. Our complaint sets forth detailed allegations explaining how Google engaged in 15 years of sustained conduct that had — and continues to have — the effect of driving out rivals, diminishing competition, inflating advertising costs, reducing revenues for news publishers and content creators, snuffing out innovation, and harming the exchange of information and ideas in the public sphere.

In fact, in 2020 the Department of Justice sued Google on the same grounds: its anticompetitive conduct by allegedly monopolizing search and search advertising. The trial for the three-year-old lawsuit is expected to be held in September.

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