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Justice Dept. Sues Google for Dominating Digital Advertising

The lawsuit accuses Google of harming competition through its dominance, creating an environment where “website creators earn less and advertisers pay more.”

The Justice Department sued Google alongside eight states over allegations the company’s monopoly in digital advertising harms competition. “Website creators earn less and advertisers pay more” due to Google’s dominance and efforts to “neutralize or eliminate rivals,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a press conference Tuesday. The lawsuit demands that Google, at the least, split its ad manager suite and ad exchange, as well as “any additional structural relief as needed to cure any anticompetitive harm.” Google was previously sued in December 2020 by the DOJ and 35 states over the same issue, as well as by the Trump administration in October 2020 over antitrust issues. Representatives for Google slammed the latest lawsuit as 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.”