Google is set to face its second antitrust lawsuit from the US Department of Justice, citing a report from Bloomberg which notes the DoJ’s lawyers are preparing for a fresh round of interviews to seek more details.
They’re targeting Google on its ads business, specifically the dominant position it holds in the digital ad market. Google has been subject to similar lawsuits before and now in several other countries outside of the American continent.
A Monopoly in Digital Ads
Google is often considered a search engine company, but it’s just one of the many services it provides for the sake of sucking your data. With all its products, Google groups up a vast amount of data regarding its customers to use for targeted ads.
And its wide popularity catered to the monopoly status, which the regulators often doubt for being exploited by the company. In terms of digital ads business, Google is subject to a number of lawsuits in the US and Europe.
In 2020, Google was sued by the US Department of Justice for having an unfair monopoly on search and search-related advertising. The department stated that Google is using its dominance to force Android OEMs to set Google as the default search engine – preventing competition.
A similar case was later filed by Texas as a multi-state lawsuit, where the state’s Attorney General accused Google of using its “monopolistic power to control” the ad pricing in many of its digital products.
Now, it’s once again targeted by the US DoJ on similar counts. As Bloomberg reported, the department is preparing to sue Google regarding its dominant position in illegally controlling the digital ad market.
A potential lawsuit regarding this is said to be filed in September this year, for which the department’s lawyers are planning to conduct another round of interviews to gather more data. This new round is expected to build on previous ones held a long time back.
Talking about this, Google spokesperson Peter Schottenfels said;
“Our advertising technologies help websites and apps fund their content, and enable small businesses to reach customers around the world. The enormous competition in online advertising has made online ads more relevant, reduced ad tech fees, and expanded options for publishers and advertisers.”
