US government is suing Google

The administration of President Joe Biden has charged the big tech giant with abusing its control over the online advertising market. 

President Joe Biden’s administration has filed a lawsuit against Google, alleging that the firm engaged in “anti-competitive, exclusionary” behaviour to unlawfully kill or weaken any significant competitors to its hegemony over the online advertising market. 

In an antitrust case filed on Tuesday in the US District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) demanded that Google be forced to sell off a portion of its advertising business. About 80% of the big tech behemoth’s revenue comes from advertising. 

Google owns market-leading services that let users connect publishers and advertisers, give ad space, and make better ads. According to the lawsuit, the firm has used its scale and reach to buy out or disrupt “actual or potential” rivals and to force advertisers and websites to use its services. 

According to the DOJ, in the digital advertising sector, Google has stifled meaningful competition, discouraged innovation, taken supracompetitive profits for itself, and prevented the free market from operating fairly to support the interests of the advertisers and publishers who make today’s robust internet possible, according to the DOJ.

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Google claimed that the government was attempting to decide who would succeed and fail in the “extremely competitive” field of online advertising. The company claimed in a statement that the DOJ’s erroneous arguments are virtually identical to those in a Texas lawsuit that was recently dismissed by a federal judge. 

The federal government was joined in the Tuesday lawsuit by eight states, including California, the state where Google is headquartered. Attorney General Phil Weiser of Colorado stated, “We are taking action by launching this case to dismantle Google’s monopoly and restore competition to the digital advertising market.” 

In 2020, the administration of Biden’s predecessor, then-President Donald Trump, filed an antitrust case against Google, alleging unfair commercial practises in the market-dominant online search sector of the company. The trial in that case is set for later this year.