Publishers rally as Google advertising antitrust trial restarts in US

One month after a US court ruled that Google illegally maintained its monopoly on internet search, the tech giant is back in the dock.

This time, Google’s lucrative online advertising business, which last year raked in nearly $240bn (£183bn), is under fire, with the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and 17 states accusing its parent company, Alphabet, of monopolising digital ad technology.

The DOJ is calling for a breakup of the tech behemoth, potentially including the sale of its Doubleclick adtech business, claiming its dominance stifles competition and innovation.

Google, however, denies these accusations. “No one is forced to use our advertising technologies – they choose to use them because they’re effective,” it has previously said.

But this argument hasn’t quelled the mounting unrest, particularly from publishers who feel squeezed by Google’s control over ad markets.

Regulators ‘rightly’ focusing on Google

Owen Meredith, chief executive of the News Media Association (NMA), which represents British publishers, told City A.M. that global regulators are “quite rightly focusing on this as one of the most pressing issues in the digital markets.”

He added: “The antitrust litigation commencing in the Unites States will put a sharp global focus on Google’s alleged dominance in ad tech space and the consequences for stakeholders such as publishers and advertisers.”

Publishers, already battling declining revenues, argue that Googles’ grip on the digital ad ecosystem is undermining their ability to compete. The DOJ is expected to argue that, as Google takes a cut of every ad sold, its dominance inflates costs for advertisers and publishers, making it harder for them to stay afloat.

Simon Kvist, chief executive of advertising platform Adnami, said antitrust regulation is essential because a big tech monopoly could also pose a danger to the “core mechanics” of society.

“Whether it’s local newspapers or large-scale global media organisations,” he explained, “publishers play a crucial role as they create jobs, challenge those in power and inform local communities.”

Kvist called for the industry to fight back against Google’s dominance. “Ad agencies, publishers and the wider technology sector therefore have a responsibility to collaborate and make the open web a viable alternative to big tech.

“This can be done by taking initiative and developing better incentives, documentation and formats, and employing the sustainable use of data to help smaller publishers rise up,” he added.

Google also argues that its practices benefit the market. In a blog post on Sunday, Google’s vice president for regulatory affairs, Lee-Anne Mulholland, criticised the DOJ’s approach. She said it is “picking winners and losers in a highly competitive industry,” and risks “inefficiencies and higher prices” in an industry where costs have already fallen, and ad volumes have increased.

Regulatory battles heating up

This trial follows a series of regulatory hurdles for Google. Last month, a federal judge ruled in a separate case that Google had illegally maintained a monopoly in online search.

And, on Friday, Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority published provisional findings that said it believed Google’s self-preferencing of its own online ad exchange might be harming thousands of UK advertisers and publishers. A Google spokesperson said this decision was based on a “flawed” understanding of the ad tech sector.

NMA’s Meredith said: “In order to tackle these damaging impacts on our creative sectors, we need the new digital markets regulator to start its work investigating the large tech platforms as quickly as possible, with Google Search and Google ad tech as top priorities for designation.”

Federal regulators are pursuing similar antitrust cases across Silicon Valley, against Apple, Amazon, and Meta, accusing them of abusing their dominance in their respective sectors.