DOJ is reportedly preparing an antitrust lawsuit against Google over its ad business – TechCrunch
The Justice Department is preparing a second major antitrust lawsuit against Google, according to Bloomberg’s new report. The DOJ could sue Google “as soon as next month,” according to the report, which detailed that the lawsuit would be filed in federal court in Washington or New York.
Unlike Google’s first major antitrust lawsuit that the federal government initiated under the Trump administration, the new lawsuit will focus on the company’s command of the digital advertising market. Bloomberg reports that DOJ antitrust lawyers are in the process of concluding interviews with publishers after “years of work” that will eventually culminate in the upcoming lawsuit.
In 2020, DOJ sue the tech giant about its dominance in the online search market, accusing the company of “unlawfully maintaining a monopoly on the market for general search services, search advertising, and search text advertising.” search in general in the United States.”
At the time, Google opposed the lawsuit, arguing that consumers use its product because it’s more premium, not because they don’t have an alternative.
The Biden administration tried to pick a prominent Google critic, Jonathan Kanter, to lead the DOJ’s antitrust division. In a 2016 NYT report, Kanter argued that Google is notorious for using an anti-competitive playbook to cut off the oxygen supply to its competitors.
Google’s first antitrust lawsuit was filed during Trump’s term, but the Biden administration has inherited that framework – a rare policy continuity between Trump and the Biden White House – and is still working on it. to hold the tech giants accountable for anti-competitive behavior. consolidated its dominance over the past decade.
