The US Department of Justice, along with the Attorneys General of eight US states, have filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google for its anticompetitive practices in the digital advertising (ad tech) market, a press release by the Justice Department revealed on January 24. “Google’s anticompetitive behavior has raised barriers to entry to artificially high levels, forced key competitors to abandon the market for ad tech tools, dissuaded potential competitors from joining the market, and left Google’s few remaining competitors marginalized and unfairly disadvantaged. Google has thwarted meaningful competition and deterred innovation in the digital advertising industry, taken supra-competitive profits for itself, and prevented the free market from functioning fairly to support the interests of the advertisers and publishers who make today’s powerful internet possible,” the lawsuit states. Why does this matter: The lawsuit, if successful, will have significant ramifications for Google as the company will be required to overhaul its ad tech business, including divesting acquisitions made over 15 years ago. For Google, this could hurt revenues more than any other antitrust decision in the past, and for website publishers and advertisers, this could open up the digital advertising market to a trove of newer players who charge lower rates of commission. https://twitter.com/DinaSrinivasan/status/1617976103934758912?s=20 STAY ON TOP OF TECH POLICY: Our daily newsletter with top stories from MediaNama and around the world, delivered to your inbox before 9 AM. Click here to sign up today! Wait, but wasn't there already a lawsuit against Google on this? Google faces so many antitrust lawsuits…
