The Justice Department is expected to reject Google’s recent attempts to avoid an antitrust lawsuit.
Google is under scrutiny by the DOJ for its control of the advertising market, leading the company to consider separating its advertising from its search engine operations to appease regulators. It has also reportedly made at least one settlement offer to the Justice Department to address its concerns, which was not well-received, according to Bloomberg.
The agency is expected to file a lawsuit against Google in the coming weeks, according to two people with knowledge of the situation. Google and the Justice Department declined to comment. However, Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust Jonathan Kanter emphasized during a Wednesday appearance at a Fortune conference that his agency was committed to litigating antitrust cases in court.
GOOGLE PROPOSES REORGANIZING AD BUSINESS TO WARD OFF US ANTITRUST CASE: REPORT
“We have been engaging constructively with regulators to address their concerns,” a Google spokesman told the Wall Street Journal. “As we’ve said before, we have no plans to sell or exit this business.”
He added, “Rigorous competition in ad technology has made online ads more relevant, reduced fees, and expanded options for publishers and advertisers.”
The DOJ has been conducting a multiyear investigation into allegations that Google has mishandled its role in selling and auctioning digital advertisements. The lawsuit, which the DOJ filed in October 2020, aims “to restrain Google LLC from unlawfully maintaining monopolies in the markets for general search services, search advertising, and general search text advertising in the United States through anticompetitive and exclusionary practices, and to remedy the effects of this conduct.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
The DOJ is not the only one with its eyes on Google for its ad tech. The search engine currently faces an investigation from the European Union over allegations of anti-competitive conduct involving its video streaming service YouTube. The company has offered to allow competitors to broker the sale of ads directly on the platform, according to the Wall Street Journal, thus removing Google Ads from being the middle man. It is unclear if the EU would consider such concessions acceptable.
Legislators have also made pushes to change Google’s ad business. Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) in May introduced the Competition and Transparency in Digital Advertising Act. This bill would ban online companies with more than $20 billion in annual digital ad revenue from participating in more than one part of the digital advertising process.
