Google To Be Faced With Class Action Lawsuit From Advertisers

JAKARTA - US District Judge Kevin Castel has ruled that Alphabet's Inc., or Google, should face a class-action lawsuit filed by advertisers stating that the company is monopolizing the ad exchange market. However, Judge Castel rejected several other charges related to antitrust law violations, including those related to advertising purchase tools used by major advertisers.

In its decision, judge Castel rejected a number of demands but allowed at least a key set to continue. He stated that advertisers "did not sensibly file charges of standing up in antitrust laws in the market of ad purchase tools used by big advertisers, but they plausibly filed charges standing in antitrust laws against the losses they suffered from anti-competitive practices in the ad exchange market and the purchase tools market for small advertisers."

Judge Castel also said that Gannett, which is the largest newspaper network in the United States and USA Today's publisher, could try to prove in separate cases that Google is cheatingly hiding the anti-competitive effects of some technology.

Gannett alleges that the company sold part of its ad space directly to advertisers, but Google is still making the inventory available for auction on its ad exchange to benefit from transaction fees for its own interests.

Google and Gannett did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the media. In addition, the judge also decided in several other cases in the national litigation.

Google faces a number of demands on antitrust grounds. The United States Department of Justice sued Google in January 2023, accusing it of abusing its dominance in digital advertising. The government asks to transfer ownership from Google Ad Manager suites, including Google's advertising exchange, AdX.

Google Ad Manager is a suite of tools including one that allows websites to offer ad space for sale and an exchange that functions as a market that automatically matches advertisers and publishers. Advertisers and website publishers have complained that Google is not transparent about where ad money goes, in particular how much is given to publishers and how much to Google.