DOJ Sues Google Again To Break Up Its Ad Business

The big news out of yesterday was that the US Department of Justice and several states has once again sued Google calling for the breakup of its ad tech business that allegedly monopolizes the US ad market. Google of course does not agree with this action.

Nicole Farley does a really good job explaining all of this on Search Engine Land, plus there is a ton of content written by humans and machines consolidated at Techmeme, so check that out. I personally hate covering legal news but my gut, this lawsuit will make a big dent in Google – although, it will likely drag out for a while.

Bloomberg wrote, “The lawsuit we have filed today seeks to hold Google to account for what we allege are its longstanding monopolies in digital advertising technologies that content creators use to sell ads and advertisers use to buy ads on the open Internet,” said the Justice Department’s antitrust chief Jonathan Kanter in a news conference Tuesday announcing the suit.”

Google responds, 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. We’ve already responded in detail to many similar claims made in the complaint led by the Texas Attorney General.”

Here is the DOJ statement that says, “As alleged in the complaint, over the past 15 years, Google has engaged in a course of anticompetitive and exclusionary conduct that consisted of neutralizing or eliminating ad tech competitors through acquisitions; wielding its dominance across digital advertising markets to force more publishers and advertisers to use its products; and thwarting the ability to use competing products. In doing so, Google cemented its dominance in tools relied on by website publishers and online advertisers, as well as the digital advertising exchange that runs ad auctions.”

Didn’t this happen before? Yes, the DOJ previously sued Google in 2020 for this as well.

Here is what some folks in the search industry think:

This is good news for Amazon. Amazon has been signing up publishers left and right. Any kind of FUD for publishers will accelerate that process.

— Tony Zara 🪣 (@tonyzara) January 24, 2023

idk, but someone needs to start a class action for their #LSA platform which is being completely neglected..

— Len (@lenraleigh) January 24, 2023

To call this industry monopolistic is a gross understatement.🫠

— Alain Machado (@Alainmachado7) January 24, 2023

I mean they kinda have a point about Google dominance

— dan72ros (@dan72ros) January 25, 2023

You can’t dismantle the ad division from the core google service. It will take away EXACTLY what makes the ads so targeted… and annoying.

— BenzoJones (@benzojones) January 24, 2023

Plus the timing is a little ironic with the emergence of bigger-than-ever threats to Google’s search engine dominance.

— Steve Chipman (@SteveChipman) January 24, 2023

Consumers have choice. There are numerous ad networks. Google ≠ monopoly.

— Steve Huskey (@TalkNerdie2Me) January 25, 2023

This should be a fun year or so for Google…

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.