Justice Department wants to split Google’s advertising business

The US Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google on Tuesday. The lawsuit aims to ultimately split the internet giant’s lucrative digital ad tech business.

Over the past 15 years, Google has engaged in “anti-competitive, exclusive and illegal” practices that have allowed it to “significantly undermine, if not destroy, competition in the ad tech industry,” said the U.S. Attorney General. of Merrick Garland said at a news conference on Tuesday.

The lawsuit, filed with several states in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, alleges that Google violated the Sherman Antitrust Act by manipulating three key elements of the ad tech market.

First, according to the complaint, Google controls the technology that nearly every major website publisher uses to sell advertising space. Second, it says Google controls the primary tools advertisers use to buy their ad space. Third, the company claims that it unfairly controls its exchange, the largest ad exchange that matches advertisers and publishers.

As a result, Garland says:

The nearly 150-page-long lawsuit extensively cites Google executives and employees to allege that Google acted unfairly and unlawfully. exec asked, “Are there deeper issues with owning a platform, an exchange, a huge network? [for advertising]? Even if Goldman and Citibank owned the New York Stock Exchange. ”

Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Cantor said on Tuesday, “There is certainly a deeper issue, and that issue is the Sherman Antitrust Act.”

In response to DOJ’s allegations, a Google spokesperson said in a statement that the lawsuit “seems to pick winners and losers in the highly competitive ad tech sector.”

The company said DOJ’s allegations are similar to those put forward by the Texas Attorney General in the partially dismissed lawsuit. These debates “will slow down innovation, drive up advertising costs and make growth difficult for thousands of small businesses and publishers,” the spokesperson said.

DOJ seeks damages for Google’s alleged anti-competitive conduct and sale of certain ad tech products. Additionally, the division is seeking an injunction to stop Google from continuing to engage in the anticompetitive practices described in the complaint.