We’ve written a lot about the pressure Apple has been under from regulators and digital services (notably Spotify and Epic Games) over the way it runs its App Store. However, Google has its own headaches on the antitrust front, and one of them has just become a full-blown migraine.
The US Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit focusing on Google’s dominance of the digital advertising market. The lawsuit certainly doesn’t pull any punches, claiming that Google “has corrupted legitimate competition in the ad tech industry by engaging in a systematic campaign to seize control of the wide swath of high-tech tools used by publishers, advertisers, and brokers, to facilitate digital advertising”.
Oh, and that it has “used anticompetitive, exclusionary, and unlawful means to eliminate or severely diminish any threat to its dominance over digital advertising technologies”. The threat here is that Google’s advertising business gets broken up, so it’s no surprise that the company hit back swiftly with a response.
“DOJ is doubling down on a flawed argument that would slow innovation, raise advertising fees and make it harder for thousands of small businesses and publishers to grow,” claimed Google. “Government shouldn’t pick winners and losers in a competitive industry.” The fight is on.
Tools: platforms to help you reach new audiences
Tools: Kaiber
In the year or so since its launch, AI startup Kaiber has been making waves,…