One month after a US court ruled Google had illegally maintained its monopoly on internet search, the tech giant will this week face the start of yet another important antitrust case.
This new case is focused on Google’s online advertising business, which last year brought in more than US$200 billion. The US Department of Justice, along with 17 states, claims Google’s parent company, Alphabet, has monopolised multiple digital advertising technology products by neutralising or eliminating its competitors. The department says this “has caused great harm to online publishers and advertisers and American consumers.”
Google has denied this claim. In a statement published when the lawsuit was filed late last year, it said:
No one is forced to use our advertising technologies – they choose to use them because they’re effective.
Over the past decade, the European Union has successfully proved in a number of cases that digital platforms including Google have acted anticompetitively. This case further shows the US is also more willing to take on Google and …