ISTANBUL
The US Justice Department, joined by eight states, filed Tuesday a civil antitrust lawsuit against tech company Google amid its use of internet advertisement technologies.
The department alleges that Google has used anticompetitive, exclusionary, and unlawful conduct to eliminate or severely diminish any threat to its dominance over digital advertising technologies.
"These technologies, known as ad tech, automate advertising sales by websites publishers to online advertisers," Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in a press conference. "When an internet user opens a webpage that has ad space to sell, ad tech tools almost instantly match the website publisher with an advertiser looking to promote its products or services in the website to the website's user."
Garland said this process involves the use of an "automated advertising exchange" that runs a high-speed auction designed to identify the best match between a publisher selling an internet ad space and advertisers looking to buy it.
Filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, the lawsuit was joined by the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Tennessee, and Virginia.
This is the second antitrust lawsuit against Google by the Justice Department in approximately two years after a lawsuit in October 2020, joined by 11 state attorneys, alleged that the tech company has unlawfully maintained a monopoly in internet searches, from general services to advertising.
Garland said the Justice Department claims that Google's anticompetitive conduct extends to three significant elements of the digital ad buying process.
"First, Google controls the technology used by nearly every major website publisher to offer advertising space for sale. Second, Google controls the leading tool used by advertisers to buy that advertising space. Third, Google controls the largest ad exchange that matches publishers and advertisers together each time that ad space is sold," he explained.
"As a result of this scheme, website creators earn less and advertisers pay more. That means fewer publishers are able to offer internet users content without subscriptions, pay walls or other forms of monetization," he added.
Garland said the complaint seeks damages and divestiture of certain Google ad tech products and an injunction preventing Google from continuing to engage in anticompetitive practices and any other practices with the same purpose and effect.
He stressed that monopolies threaten free and fair markets on which the American economy is based, stifle innovation hurt producers and workers, and increase costs for consumers.
"No matter the industry, no matter the company, the Justice Department will vigorously enforce our antitrust laws, we will aggressively protect consumers, safeguard competition, and work to ensure economic fairness and opportunity for all," he said.
Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta said antitrust is about economic justice at its core, and the recent action underscores the Justice Department's priority to fight the abuse of market power, adding: "When any company violates the antitrust laws, our economy and our democracy suffer."
"Americans rely on the internet for news and community, and advertising revenue is essential for publishers to produce and share ideas and writings. But, we allege that Google has captured that revenue for its own profits and punish publishers who sought alternatives. Those actions have weakened the free and open internet, and increased advertising costs for businesses, and the United States government, including our military," she said.
Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division said the complaint has detailed allegations explaining how Google engaged in 15 years of sustained conduct that continues to have the effect of inflating advertising costs, reducing revenues for news publishers and content creators, and harming the exchange of information and ideas in the public sphere.
The Justice Department said Google generates more than 30% of advertising money on average, by its own estimates, that flow through its digital advertising technology products as a result of its monopoly, adding the company takes more for some transactions and for certain publishers and advertisers.
Google, owned by Alphabet, has seen its global network business generating approximately $31.7 billion revenues in 2021, according to the Justice Department.
It noted that the civil antitrust suit against Google filed in 2020 for monopolizing search and search advertising are different markets from the digital advertising technology markets at issue compared to the lawsuit filed Tuesday.
The search litigation against Google is scheduled for trial in September.
Alphabet's stock price dove to $97.40 per share at 2.42 p.m. EDT (1942GMT) for a 2.4% daily loss after closing the previous session at $99.79 a share.
