Google Sued Over Alleged Ad Tech Monopoly

Advertising exchange PubMatic has reportedly sued Google, claiming it holds an advertising technology monopoly.

The suit, filed in federal court in Virginia on Monday (Sept. 8), is seeking billions of dollars, Bloomberg News reported.

The report points out this is the second suit by an advertising exchange since a ruling in April that found Google held an illegal monopoly over ad exchanges and the tools employed by websites to sell advertising space.

Another trial is set for later this month to determine Google’s remedies in that case. The U.S. Justice Department has said Google should be made to immediately divest itself of its AdX advertising exchange, while Google says such a measure isn’t necessary. Instead, it has proposed making AdX work seamlessly with rival technology and install a monitor to ensure compliance for the next three years.

PYMNTS has contacted Google for comment but has not yet gotten a reply.

PubMatic CEO Rajeev Goel told Bloomberg the April ruling was “meaningful but not complete,” and that his company’s lawsuit wasn’t simply about money, but also about making sure online ad markets work.

“It felt like for many years no matter how well we innovated there was a barrier holding us back,” Goel said. “That barrier wasn’t the limits of our technology. It was Google’s illegal monopoly. Every time we adapted or innovated, Google found new ways to stack the deck.”

According to Bloomberg, PubMatic helps websites sell advertising space. Google had considered purchasing the company in 2011, according to documents and testimony from the last year’s antitrust trial, but instead acquired advertising technology provider AdMeld.

Meanwhile, PYMNTS spoke last week with a range of experts about the fallout from the court ruling. Among them was DBD Investment Bank Managing Director Philip Alberstat, who said the court decision could still bring about major changes to the competitive landscape.

“Google has been paying platforms like Apple and others massive sums of money for exclusivity that has essentially created insurmountable barriers to entry,” he said. “This ruling changes all that in theory, by changing the competitive landscape.”

And The SEO Works CEO Ben Foster cautioned that letting Google continue to pay for placement on third-party devices could allow it to still dominate the AI search game.

“It can still be the search engine of choice for Android phones and also continue to pay Apple to be the default search engine there,” he noted. “This means as search evolves with AI technology, Google’s AI solutions will have the best chance of adoption. AI challengers such as Perplexity and OpenAI may benefit from greater access to data, but they still face the uphill task of gaining scale and adoption among users.”