Robert Besser
28 Jan 2023, 14:31 GMT+10
WASHINGTON D.C.: The US Justice Department has filed an antitrust complaint claiming that Google is abusing its dominance in digital advertising, and threatening to dismantle one of its key businesses.
Google should be forced to sell its ad manager suite, which generated some 12 percent of the tech giant's revenues in 2021 and is a crucial part of the search engine and cloud company's overall sales.
"Google has used anticompetitive, exclusionary, and unlawful means to eliminate or severely diminish any threat to its dominance over digital advertising technologies," the antitrust complaint said.
With its advertising business accounting for about 80 percent of its revenue, Google said that the government was "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."
In response, the government said that its Big Tech investigations and lawsuits aim to level the playing field for the smaller rivals of the group of powerful companies, which include Amazon, Facebook and Apple.
"By suing Google for monopolizing advertising technology, the DOJ aims at the heart of the internet giant's power," said Charlotte Slaiman, competition policy director at Public Knowledge, as quoted by Reuters.
This week's lawsuit follows a 2020 antitrust lawsuit brought against Google, which alleged violations of antitrust law by the company in maintaining its dominance with its monopoly in online searches.
Eight states have joined in this week's lawsuit, including California, Google's home state.
Google has "stifled creativity in a space where innovation is crucial," California State Attorney General Rob Bonta said.
Get a daily dose of Oklahoma City Sun news through our daily email, its complimentary and keeps you fully up to date with world and business news as well.
Publish news of your business, community or sports group, personnel appointments, major event and more by submitting a news release to Oklahoma City Sun.
More InformationBRUSSELS, Belgium: The energy ministers of European Union member countries have approved a landmark law to end sales of new ...
BEIJING, China: After more than a year of self-imposed exile overseas, Alibaba founder Jack Ma has returned to China, allegedly ...
NEW YORK, New York - U.S. stocks and the dollar made solid gains on Wednesday as banking sector fears continued ...
NEW YORK CITY, New York: In a legal filing, Twitter announced that parts of its source code - the fundamental ...
NEW YORK CITY, New York: Bloomberg News has reported that New Jersey-based Valley National Bancorp is bidding to purchase Silicon ...
NEW YORK, New York - U.S. stocks lipped on Tuesday as bond yields rose in the aftermath of the easing ...
JAKARTA, Indonesia: Officials from Indonesia's Aceh province said that more than 180 Rohingya Muslims landed this week by boat, in ...
HONG KONG: Hong Kong's first authorized protest took place since the end of COVID-19 restrictions and under new strict security ...
MOSCOW, Russia: A new campaign has begun across Russia to attract badly needed recruits to replenish its troop numbers for ...
WASHINGTON D.C.: US House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy has said that lawmakers will move forward on legislation aimed at ...
CROWNPOINT, New Mexico: Navajo Technical University, located on the largest Native American reservation in the US, has become the first ...
WEST READING, Pennsylvania: An explosion occurred at a chocolate factory in Pennsylvania, killing seven people and seeing ten staff members ...