In its legal argument, the Administration of President Joe Biden asks the Court that the technology giant be forced to sell parts of its advertising business, which represents 80% of its income.
The US Justice Department has sued Alphabet Inc., Google’s parent company, for allegedly abusing its dominance in the digital advertising business. The antitrust lawsuit, filed Tuesday in a US district court in Alexandria, Virginia, accuses the tech giant of using “anti-competitive and exclusionary” practices to unlawfully quash or diminish any significant threat to its influence over the online advertising industry.
In the judicial argument, the Administration of President Joe Biden asks the Justice to force the company to sell part of its advertising business, which represents 80% of its income.
“Google thwarted any meaningful competition and deterred innovation in the digital advertising industry, made supra-competitive profits for itself, and prevented the free market from working fairly to support the interests of advertisers and publishers who make the mighty Internet of Things possible. today,” the Justice Department asserts.
Eight states (including California, where Google’s headquarters are located) joined the US government’s lawsuit. Along these lines, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said the tech giant’s practices have “stifled creativity in a space where innovation is crucial,” as quoted by Reuters.
In 2020, the Administration of then-President Donald Trump filed a similar lawsuit against Google, this time for its Web search business. There it was denounced that the company used exclusive distribution agreements with wireless service providers and phone manufacturers to block to the competition.
For its part, Google denies that its advertising practices harm competition. “The demand […] of the Department of Justice tries to pick winners and losers in the highly competitive ad technology sector,” the firm alleged in a statement released on Tuesday. In addition, it asserted that the “flawed argument” of that institution “would delay innovation, increase rates of advertising and would hinder the growth of thousands of small businesses and publishers.
Source: RT
