The newspaper Daily Mail’s parent company is suing Google over allegations it has a monopoly in digital advertising that harms the news publishing industry.
The complaint in New York federal court asserted that Google’s alleged monopoly over the tools that publishers and advertisers use to buy and sell digital ad space has prevented publishers from benefiting from increased ad spending.
“Google has used its search rankings to punish publishers that do not submit to its practices,” the lawsuit read. “The lack of competition for publishers’ inventory depresses prices and reduces the amount and quality of news available to readers, but Google ends up ahead because it controls a growing share of the ad space that remains.”
Such actions acutely hit the Daily Mail, the lawsuit argued, because it generates more than 80% of its revenue from online ads and does not sell subscriptions.
Google is facing several antitrust battles, including antitrust lawsuits brought by the federal government and states’ attorneys general. The Daily Mail is not the only news outlet challenging Google, either. Doug Reynolds, founder and managing director of HD Media in West Virginia, filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google earlier this year.
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