Bloomberg is reporting that the US Department of Justice is preparing to sue Google “as soon as next month,” alleging that Alphabet’s (Google’s parent company) ad unit has illegally dominated the digital advertising market. The case, which the DoJ has been building for over a year, could be filed in September, either in federal court in Washington DC, where another case against Google, that one regarding search practices, is pending, or in New York, where state attorney generals there have filed their own antitrust case against Google over ads.
The Justice Department has declined comment, and Google reacted with this statement to Bloomberg:
“Our advertising technologies help websites and apps fund their content, and enable small businesses to reach customers around the world,” said Google spokesperson Peter Schottenfels. “The enormous competition in online advertising has made online ads more relevant, reduced ad tech fees, and expanded options for publishers and advertisers.”
After years of almost unregulated growth and reach, the US has recently been pushing to reign in US technology companies. With the Federal Trade Commission is suing Meta (Facebook) and investigating Amazon, and a Trump administration suit brought against Google over it’s search, as well as suits brought by 16 states and Puerto Rico against Google over advertising practices and various EU complaints, these large US tech companies are coming under increasing fire.
We’ll continue to watch the state of antitrust actions across the tech landscape, something that Microsoft knows quite a bit about.
