Google is “driving out” ad competitors, says top US law official.
Merrick Garland, the US attorney-general alleges that the tech giant has too much power and has “weakened if not destroyed competition in the ad tech industry”.
The top federal legal man and eight others, have launched a legal case against the search engine, who in return have accused the Department of Justice of “doubling down on a flawed argument”.
They believe the case is trying to “pick winners and losers” in a competitive sector.
Ad revenue is a huge portion of Google’s marketing leading stream of income but recently they have seen a dip – it made up 36.7% in 2016 but 28.8% in 2022 – according to data from Insider Intelligence, matching trends across the tech sector.
President Joe Biden’s top law man outlined three key areas of their anti-competition business practices in the allegations. These includes how Google apparently controls the tech all significant web publishers use to sell ad space. They also seemingly command the tools and the ad exchange process used to sync up publishers and advertisers.
Due to this, Merrick said: “Website creators earn less and advertisers pay more.”
According to their assessment, it means more places are unable to offer free content and forces the introduction of paywalls or other kinds of money-making strategies.
In response, Google told “BBC News” that the suit “attempts to pick winners and losers in the highly competitive advertising technology sector.
“It largely duplicates an unfounded lawsuit by the Texas attorney-general, much of which was recently dismissed by a federal court.
“DOJ is doubling down on a flawed argument that would slow innovation, raise advertising fees, and make it harder for thousands of small businesses.”
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