Advertising: antitrust action against Google across the Atlantic


The US Department of Justice on Tuesday filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google seeking to break up the internet giant’s lucrative digital ad tech business.

Over the past 15 years, Google has engaged in “anti-competitive, exclusionary, and illegal practices” that have allowed it to “severely impair or even destroy competition in the ad-tech industry,” said Google. United States Attorney General Merrick Garland at a press conference on Tuesday.

Filed alongside several states in federal court, the lawsuit alleges that Google violated the Sherman Antitrust Act by manipulating three major elements of the ad-tech market:

  • First, Google would control the technology used by almost all major website publishers to offer advertising space for sale.
  • Second, Google would control the primary tool used by advertisers to buy that ad space.
  • Finally, the company would unfairly control the largest ad exchange market that connects advertisers and publishers.

As a result, for Merrick Garland, “website creators earn less and advertisers pay more. This means that fewer publishers are able to offer content to Internet users without subscriptions, paywalls or other forms of monetization”.

“Is there a problem that we are platform, exchange and network? »

The complaint, which runs to nearly 150 pages, cites Google executives and employees extensively to demonstrate that the company acted unfairly and unlawfully. For example, she notes that in late 2016, a Google digital advertising executive wondered if being “owner of the platform, the exchange, and the massive network [pour la publicité] was a problem. “The analogy would be that Goldman or Citibank own the New York Stock Exchange” (Goldman Sachs and Citibank are banks, editor’s note), he believed.

Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter responded Tuesday, “Yes, indeed, there is a problem, and that problem is the Sherman Antitrust Act. »

In response to the DOJ (Department Of Justice) allegations, Google responded in a statement that the lawsuit “attempts to pick winners and losers in the highly competitive ad tech industry.” For the company, the DOJ’s arguments are similar to those advanced by the Texas Attorney General in a lawsuit that was partially dismissed. These arguments would “slow innovation, increase advertising costs and make it harder for thousands of small businesses and publishers to grow.”

The DOJ seeks damages for allegedly anti-competitive practices by Google, as well as the divestment of certain ad tech products. Additionally, he seeks an injunction restraining Google from continuing to engage in the anticompetitive practices described in the complaint.

This new investigation could weaken Google in a context of economic slowdown, causing job cuts, and the rise of competition on the innovation side.

Above all, American economic history is rich in economic players dismantled in the name of the antitrust law mentioned by the American Department of Justice, in the advertising or telecoms sectors in the 1980s, for example, with AT&T.

Long line of complaints and fines

Finally, in the United States, France and Europe, Google has already had to endure the wrath of the courts and national authorities on issues of abuse of a dominant position in the online advertising sector.

In December 2019, after two years of “difficult” investigation, France condemned Google to a fine of 150 million euros for having “abused the dominant position it holds in the search advertising market”.

In September 2021, Google was fined 2.4 billion euros in Europe for anti-competitive practices in the price comparison market.

In March 2019, the European Commission also fined Google 1.5 billion euros for favoring its AdSense advertising agency by using its strike force.

Source: ZDNet.com





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