DOJ Sues Google Again, Attacking Its Online Ad Dominance

DOJ Sues Google

On Tuesday, the US Department of Justice and eight states filed a lawsuit against Google, alleging that the company's online advertising business has abused its monopoly power and harmed advertisers and publishers. The DOJ's complaint, which was filed in federal court in Virginia, claims that Google has "corrupted legitimate competition in the ad tech industry" by taking control of online advertising systems and inserting itself into every aspect of the digital advertising marketplace.

According to the complaint, Google has eliminated competition through acquisitions and exploited its dominance to push advertisers to use its products over those of others. The DOJ's complaint names only Google as the defendant, and not any individuals, and calls for Google to sell part of its ad tech business. The Justice Department also claims that Google punishes websites that use competing ad tech products and uses its dominance in ad technology to "funnel more transactions to its own ad tech products, where it extracts inflated fees to line its own pockets at the expense of the advertisers and publishers it purportedly serves."