Amber Neely
The Department of Justice is reportedly preparing to sue Google over concerns that the company illegally controls the online advertising market.
Currently, the DOJ's lawyers are questioning publishers, hoping to gain additional details for the complaint, according to those familiar with the situation.
The DOJ could sue Google as soon as next month, notes Bloomberg. It's unknown whether prosecutors will file the case in federal court or in New York, where state attorneys general have their own antitrust case related to Google's ad business.
"Our advertising technologies help websites and apps fund their content, and enable small businesses to reach customers around the world," Google spokesperson Peter Schottenfels told Bloomberg. "The enormous competition in online advertising has made online ads more relevant, reduced ad tech fees, and expanded options for publishers and advertisers."
While the DOJ had Google in its sights as early as 2012, when it first suspected anticompetitive practices, this investigation is more recent.
In 2019, the agency announced an antitrust review of major tech companies, including Apple, Amazon, Google, and Facebook. The probe was widely anticipated at the time.
A year later, legislators began questioning experts and competitors in the online advertising industry for advice on how to reduce Google's dominant control in the field, with some pointing to the potential sale of Chrome as a solution.
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11 Comments
Just exactly how is Google preventing anyone from creating ads? Did Google tell customers not to place ads? Did Google tell ISPs not to carry ads except for Google?
It never occurred to me that Google was doing anything wrong. It seems like they go way overboard on this anticompetitive stuff. If the consumer is not being harmed then I don’t think they should worry about it. Just like Google being dominant in search. The government can’t claim that Google is preventing other search engines from operating. If people are not choosing the other search engines then that’s not Google’s fault. Just like they were so upset that Internet Explorer came preloaded onto Windows. It wasn’t Microsoft’s fault that people chose not to download something else.
Three babes in the woods?, the Justice Dept. should target (end) that sweet heart deal that Google has with Apple paying bribe money to have a default position on iOS and Mac OS a big Ad advantage.