Google has been accused of unfairly monopolizing the digital advertising market, leading to a significant drop in advertising revenue for publishers.
Gannett, the publisher of USA Today, is suing the search engine for using “deceptive business practices” and violating US antitrust and consumer protection laws.
Why we care: This is the latest in a series of lawsuits in which Google has been accused of violating antitrust laws. The outcome of these cases could force the search engine to implement major changes such as divesting its advertising business, which could lead to greater transparency, more campaign control for advertisers and better innovation, which could also mean the creation of new ads tools.
What is happening? Gannett filed a federal lawsuit against Google in New York today. In a statement, the company said:
“Google controls 90% of the market for publisher ad servers, which publishers use to offer ad space for sale. Google also controls more than 60% of the market for ad exchanges, which run auctions between advertisers that deliver advertising space to publishers’ websites.”
Publishers rely heavily on digital advertising revenue to survive, and Gannett is the largest newspaper publisher in the US
Get the daily search newsletter marketers trust.
What did Gannett say? Gannett CEO Mike Reed released a statement explaining the impact Google’s alleged illegal practices have had on news publishers:
“News publishers depend on digital advertising revenue to deliver timely, cutting-edge reporting and essential content communities rely on, but Google’s practices have had negative implications that not only depress revenue, but also force and the footprint of local news. fair competition for digital advertising space, publishers cannot invest in their newsrooms.”
What did Google say? Dan Taylor, vice president of Google Ads, has denied the allegations.
“These claims are simply wrong. Publishers have many choices when it comes to using ad technology to monetize; in fact, Gannett uses dozens of competing ad services, including Google Ad Manager. And when publishers choose to use the tools of Google, keep the vast majority of revenue. We will show the court how our ad products benefit publishers and help them fund their online content.”
Has this happened before? Google was accused of violating European Union antitrust laws last week. After a two-year investigation, the European Commission said that “mandatory divestment” is the only way the search engine can look to solve the problem, as changes in behavior would not be effective.
Earlier this year, nine US states (Michigan, Nebraska, Arizona, Illinois, Minnesota, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Washington and West Virginia) also joined forces to file a similar lawsuit against Google.
The states claimed that the search engine’s advertising business violated antitrust regulations. To rectify the problem, they urged Google to crack its Ad Manager suite, suggesting it exploited its dominance of online advertising. Google denied the claims and asked that the case be dismissed.
In 2020, Google was also accused of violating antitrust laws to maintain its position as the leading search engine. This case is due to go to trial in September.
But. We expect this to be a challenging year for digital advertising, with the slowest growth in recent memory. How much of this can be blamed on Google, as opposed to economic and other factors, is highly debatable.
Deeper Dive: you can read Full statement from Gannett here.
[ad_2]
Source link
