Gannett - owner of USA Today and more than 200 local newspapers in the US - accused Google of monopolizing the online advertising market.
Gannett filed the lawsuit in federal court in New York on June 20, seeking damages. In the lawsuit, Gannett claims that Google and its parent company Alphabet control how publishers buy and sell online advertising.
“This has resulted in significant revenue losses for Google’s publishers and competitors, while Google has reaped huge monopoly profits,” the lawsuit says. Gannet owns USA Today and more than 200 other local newspapers in the United States, making it the largest newspaper group in the country by circulation.
Google controls about 25% of the US online advertising market. Meta, Amazon and TikTok have more than 30% each. Other publishers and websites together control nearly 40%. The tech giants’ share of the market has begun to decline slightly, but Google remains the biggest player.
That means publishers still rely in part on Google’s advertising technology to power their operations. Gannett says Google controls 90 percent of the advertising market for publishers.
Gannett logo outside its headquarters in Virginia (USA). Photo: Reuters
In a statement yesterday, Chairman and CEO Michael Reed said Google’s dominance in the online advertising market “has had an impact on publishers, readers, and many others.” “Online advertising is the lifeblood of the digital economy. Without free and fair competition for ad space, publishers cannot invest in their newsrooms,” he said.
Dan Taylor, Google's vice president of global advertising, told CNN that the allegations were "completely false." "Publishers have many options when it comes to ad revenue. In fact, Gannett used dozens of different ad services, including Google Ad Manager. When publishers choose Google's tools, they keep the majority of their revenue. We will show the court how our ad tools benefit publishers and help them fund their digital content," he said.
Gannett's move comes as Google faces increasing allegations of monopoly in the US and Europe in its advertising business, its main moneymaker.
Last week, EU officials said Google’s advertising business should be broken up, accusing the tech giant of being involved in multiple stages of the advertising supply chain, creating conflicts of interest and threatening competition.
Earlier this year, the US Justice Department and eight states sued Google, accusing the company of threatening competition through its dominance in digital advertising. They also called for the division to be broken up.
Ha Thu (according to CNN)
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