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The lawsuit would be the second federal antitrust complaint
filed against Google, alleging violations of antitrust law in
how the tech giant acquires or maintains its dominance. The
Justice Department lawsuit filed against Google in 2020 focuses
on its monopoly in search and is scheduled to go to trial in
September.
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a Reuters
request for comment, while Google declined to comment on the
report.
The lawsuit is expected to take an aim at Google's advertising
business, which is responsible for some 80% of its revenue. In
addition to its well-known search, which is free, Google makes
revenue through its interlocking ad tech businesses, which
connect advertisers with newspapers, websites and other firms
looking to host them.
Advertisers and website publishers have complained that Google
has not been transparent about where ad dollars go, specifically
how much goes to publishers and how much to Google.
The tech giant made a series of purchases, including DoubleClick
in 2008 and AdMob in 2009, to help make it a dominant player in
online advertising.
Google had previously argued that the ad tech ecosystem was
competitive with Facebook Inc, AT&T, Comcast and others.
While Google remains the market leader by a long shot, its share
of the U.S. digital ad revenue has been eroding, falling from
36.7% in 2016 to 28.8% last year, according to Insider
Intelligence.
(Reporting by Diane Bartz and Akriti Sharma; Editing by
Subhranshu Sahu)
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