Gannett sues Google over its alleged ad tech monopoly
Publisher Gannett of USA Today.
suits Google.
the company is facing yet another lawsuit for allegedly engaging in illegal market monopolization of advertising technology, adding to the long list of lawsuits already filed against it for similar alleged conduct.
“Google has carried out a sophisticated, anticompetitive, and deceptive scheme for well over a decade,” Gannett alleged in a complaint submitted to the Southern District of New York on Tuesday. “Google has control over the largest ad exchange and ad server—both of which Google acquired rather than developed. The publisher claimed that while online readership has increased and publisher spending on online advertising has decreased, Google’s extensive control over the ad tech market has harmed news publishers.
Michael Reed, chairman and CEO of Gannett, said in a statement that “Google has monopolized market trading to their advantage and at the expense of publishers, readers, and everyone else.”.
“The online economy runs on digital advertising.
Publishers cannot invest in their newsrooms without free and fair competition for digital ad space. ”.
The lawsuit supports the U.S. government’s arguments. S. Department of Justice in its second lawsuit against Google, following a previous one that was centered on how it distributes its search product. In a similar manner, it was claimed in that lawsuit that Google had illegally maintained a monopoly through its control over various ad-related markets for selling and buying.
In a 2020 lawsuit, a group of attorneys general led by Texas claimed that Google’s ad tech products were subject to anti-competitive practices.
Following the lawsuit, VP of Google Ads Dan Taylor referred to Gannett’s claims as “simply wrong” in a statement.
Publishers have a wide range of options when it comes to monetizing their content with advertising technology; in fact, Gannett uses dozens of rival ad services, such as Google Ad Manager, Taylor said. And when publishers decide to use Google’s tools, they keep the lion’s share of the money. We will demonstrate to the court the advantages of our advertising products and how they support online content publishers. ”.
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