DOJ poised to sue Google over digital ad market dominance – Bloomberg News

STORY CONTINUES BELOW THESE SALTWIRE VIDEOS

(Reuters) -The U.S. Justice Department is poised to sue Alphabet Inc’s Google as soon as Tuesday regarding its dominance over the digital advertising market, Bloomberg News reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The lawsuit would be the second federal antitrust complaint filed against Google, alleging violations of antitrust law in how the tech giant acquires or maintains its dominance. The Justice Department lawsuit filed against Google in 2020 focuses on its monopoly in search and is scheduled to go to trial in September.

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment, while Google declined to comment on the report.

The lawsuit is expected to take an aim at Google’s advertising business, which is responsible for some 80% of its revenue. In addition to its well-known search, which is free, Google makes revenue through its interlocking ad tech businesses, which connect advertisers with newspapers, websites and other firms looking to host them.

Advertisers and website publishers have complained that Google has not been transparent about where ad dollars go, specifically how much goes to publishers and how much to Google.

The tech giant made a series of purchases, including DoubleClick in 2008 and AdMob in 2009, to help make it a dominant player in online advertising.

Google had previously argued that the ad tech ecosystem was competitive with Facebook Inc, AT&T, Comcast and others.

While Google remains the market leader by a long shot, its share of the U.S. digital ad revenue has been eroding, falling from 36.7% in 2016 to 28.8% last year, according to Insider Intelligence.

(Reporting by Diane Bartz and Akriti Sharma; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)

Source link Read More ...

DOJ Poised to Sue Google Over Digital Ad Market Dominance

(Bloomberg) — The US Justice Department is poised to sue Alphabet Inc.’s Google as soon as Tuesday regarding the search giant’s dominance over the digital advertising market, according to people familiar with the matter.

The case is expected to be filed in federal court before the end of the week, said the people, who asked not to be named discussing a confidential matter. 

The Justice Department didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Google declined to comment.

The lawsuit will mark the Justice Department’s second monopoly case against the company, which is the No. 1 player in the $278.6 billion US digital-ad market, controlling most of the technology used to buy, sell and serve online advertising. 

The lawsuit would also be the fifth major case in the US challenging the company’s business practices. State attorneys general have filed three separate suits against Google, alleging it dominates the markets for online search, advertising technology and apps on the Android mobile platform in violation of antitrust laws.

The Mountain View, California-based company is No. 1 in the $626.86 billion global digital ad market, according to 2023 estimates by research firm EMarketer, with the US representing the biggest piece. Alphabet’s ad operations are expected to bring in $73.8 billion in US digital ad revenue in 2023. Google runs an ad-buying service for marketers and an ad-selling one for publishers, as well as a trading exchange where both sides complete transactions in lightning-fast auctions. 

Google has argued that the market for online advertising is a crowded and competitive one. In court filings and congressional testimony, the company has noted its rivals include other major players in the ad tech market such as Amazon.com Inc., Meta Platforms Inc. and Microsoft Corp.

The department’s scrutiny of Google’s control of the ad tech market goes back

Read More ...