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Google to face lawsuit over advertising dominance

By Nithya Bose in Business News, posted July 15, 2022

Google is facing an antitrust lawsuit over its dominance in the online advertising market.

The Justice Department is expected to file the suit against the tech giant after Google's attempts to avoid legal action failed.

Concessions were promised by Google parent Alphabet, which is trying to settle and avoid further regulatory action, but DOJ officials are anticipated to bring the case within weeks.

Google has offered at least one settlement offer to the authorities in recent days, but the efforts to pacify the DOJ's antitrust division have failed.

Google has a significant portion of the online ad sales market, producing $31.7 billion in income for Alphabet in the previous year alone.

The Department intends to claim that Google's business practices are anti-competitive.

The government has been looking into claims Google misused its dominating position in the online ad business at the cost of potential competitors.

Google has said that it faces fierce competition from other tech titans such as Amazon and Facebook parent Meta.

Google has made many concession proposals to authorities.

In one proposal, Google would split the part of its business that bids and puts ads on its digital assets as a separate company controlled by Alphabet.

Despite regulatory pressure, a Google spokesman told that the firm had no intentions to sell its ad tech unit.

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Google spokesperson Peter Schottenfels said: “We have been engaging constructively with regulators to address their concerns.”

“As we’ve said before, we have no plans to sell or exit this business, and we’re deeply committed to providing value to a wide array of publisher and advertiser partners in a highly competitive sector.”

Doha Mekki, the DOJ official expected to lead the legal maneuver, warned of lawsuits in April.

The feds have raised pressure on Google and other Big Tech companies in recent years due to concerns over possibly anti-competitive and destructive business practices.

The DOJ sued Google in 2020, alleging the California-based company of maintaining "unlawful monopolies" in its online search and advertising operations.

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai has personally lobbied Senate senators in an attempt to avert a legislative crackdown this year.

Lawmakers are pushing a bill that would prohibit tech companies from preferring their own products over competitive ones.

Source: New York Post

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