The air is getting thinner for the big tech companies. At least when it comes to competition control. Google is again facing a lawsuit from the US Department of Justice and 8 states. This time it's about the accusation of unfair competition in the online advertising market.
What is the aim of the lawsuit?
The plaintiffs are explicitly demanding that the division responsible for online advertising marketing be separated from Google. It is demanded that the court force the company to sell the AdX advertising exchange, the DFP advertising server and the Google Ad Manager service. In this way, the company's market power is to be broken and the market monopoly is to be destroyed.
The focus of the lawsuit is the real-time auctions of online ads, the so-called “ad tech market”. These are functionalities in which online advertising spaces are auctioned within fractions of a second before a website is displayed to the user. For example, entering a search term into Google Search triggers an online auction based on that search term, which determines the ads that appear on the results page.
Used illegal methods
According to the lawsuit, the group used illegal methods to secure its market power in the online marketing business. The accusation is that Google has been manipulating the advertising market for years, has bought up potential rivals at an early stage and is using a variety of measures to secure its enormous market power by preventing competition. The company has thus achieved a market share of 90 percent.
It is precisely this market power that needs to be broken, especially in the business of arranging and distributing online advertisements. Google's overwhelming dominance undermines a functioning market mechanism. Advertisers would pay too much, while publishers, i.e. the providers of online advertising spaces such as websites and apps, received too little money. At Google, on the other hand, a third of the advertising money would remain in the form of several fees.
The lawsuit also accuses the company of having made agreements with its largest competitor, Meta, in order to prevent competition. This was also tried with Amazon. However, ultimately unsuccessful here.
The contra follows immediately
The group responded defensively to the allegations in a blog post and pointed out that the takeovers of Doubleclick and Asmeld had been investigated and approved by regulatory authorities. In addition, competition in the industry would rather increase than decrease and names Amazon, Apple, Tiktok and the advertising platform Xandr, which was purchased by Microsoft. There are now also many specialized ad tech companies.
Incidentally, large parts of this lawsuit correspond to another from 2020, in which 16 states tried something similar. That lawsuit was largely dismissed.
Google says the government should let the market determine winners and losers in a competitive industry.
“Government shouldn't pick winners and losers in a competitive industry.”
Google
This accusation was immediately rejected by the US Attorney General.
“We don’t determine winners or losers, we target those who violate competition rules.”
Merrick Garland, US Attorney General
Dan Taylor, vice president and responsible for Google Ads, naturally sees things differently and emphasizes that Google is an open system and that its advertising technologies are designed to work with competitors' products. It makes it easy for partners to choose the products and services they want to use across more than 80 competing platforms for publishers and over 700 competing platforms for advertisers. Nobody would be forced to work with Google products because there is ever-increasing competition.
Source:
US Department of Justice , Google , Heise , Tagesschau ,
Already read? A Mimikama Fact Check: Insects: No One is Forced to Eat These!
If you enjoyed this post and value the importance of well-founded information, become part of the exclusive Mimikama Club! Support our work and help us promote awareness and combat misinformation. As a club member you receive:
📬 Special Weekly Newsletter: Get exclusive content straight to your inbox.
🎥 Exclusive video* “Fact Checker Basic Course”: Learn from Andre Wolf how to recognize and combat misinformation.
📅 Early access to in-depth articles and fact checks: always be one step ahead.
📄 Bonus articles, just for you: Discover content you won't find anywhere else.
📝 Participation in webinars and workshops : Join us live or watch the recordings.
✔️ Quality exchange: Discuss safely in our comment function without trolls and bots.
Join us and become part of a community that stands for truth and clarity. Together we can make the world a little better!
* In this special course, Andre Wolf will teach you how to recognize and effectively combat misinformation. After completing the video, you have the opportunity to join our research team and actively participate in the education - an opportunity that is exclusively reserved for our club members!
Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )

