Google became an ad monopoly in broad daylight and you're paying the price
TechRadarJan 24, 2023
The US Dept. of Justice (DOJ) on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against Alphabet subsidiary Google, alleging the company abuses its dominance in the digital advertising sphere and asking the court to force it to sell its ad manager suite.
In its second anti-trust lawsuit against Google - the first filed during the Trump admin. regarding alleged monopolistic search engine practices - the DOJ has been joined by eight states, including Google's home state of California. Texas has filed a separate ad business suit against the company.
Though Google will point to recent economic slumps and downsizing as proof of innocence, the company's monopolistic practices began over a decade ago. Google eliminates competition through acquisitions and subsequently forces advertisers to pay more creators to make less, all while boosting its profits year over year. The government has ignored this growing monopoly for years and should finally break its stranglehold on the digital ad market.
While prosecutors may be able to point to certain questionable business practices used by Google, trying to break the company up through anti-trust legislation is a dead end. It will be almost impossible to prove a monopoly, similar to what happened to Microsoft years ago when the DOJ sued them for anti-trust violations. The government should demand changes to particular business practices rather than trying to take down the world's most popular search engine.