Justice Department Sues Google
The Biden administration’s Justice Department and several state attorneys general filed suit against Google on Tuesday for allegedly monopolizing various digital advertising technologies.
The agency claimed Google monopolizes the tools that website publishers use to sell advertisements and that companies utilize to purchase advertisements. The civil antitrust suit, which follows another complaint issued by the Trump administration’s Justice Department three years ago related to the company’s alleged monopoly over search advertising, is backed by the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Tennessee, and Virginia.
“Today’s complaint alleges that Google has used anticompetitive, exclusionary, and unlawful conduct to eliminate or severely diminish any threat to its dominance over digital advertising technologies,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a press release. “The Justice Department will vigorously enforce our antitrust laws to protect consumers, safeguard competition, and ensure economic fairness and opportunity for all.”
Shares for Alphabet fell nearly 2% on Tuesday; the company’s stock price has declined 25% over the past year, exceeding 9% decreases in the S&P 500 and 18% decreases in the technology-heavy NASDAQ Composite.
The Justice Department claimed that Google has engaged in a “pattern of acquisitions to obtain control over key digital advertising tools” and has manipulated advertising auctions to “deprive rivals of scale.” Such moves may violate the Sherman Act, which outlaws “monopolization, attempted monopolization, or conspiracy or combination to monopolize” deemed unreasonable by the court system. (Read more from “There’s Another Huge Bombshell in Kari Lake’s Election Lawsuit” HERE)
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