Gannett, the country’s largest newspaper chain, filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Google, alleging it violated federal antitrust laws by illegally abusing its monopoly on the technology publishers use to buy and sell online ads. .
in the ComplaintIn a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against Google and its parent company Alphabet, Gannett said Google’s dominance in the digital advertising market is slashing potential revenue for those publishers. claimed.
While the online advertising market is worth $200 billion a year, according to the lawsuit, advertising revenues for news publishers have fallen by nearly 70% since 2009, resulting in fewer journalism jobs and many newspapers It is said to be forced out of business.
“Google controls how publishers sell their ad space, and publishers are forced to sell their increasing share of their ad space to Google at lower prices,” the complaint states. “As a result, revenues for publishers and Google’s ad tech rivals have plummeted, while Google enjoys a prohibitive monopoly profit.”
The lawsuit is the latest in a series of lawsuits filed against Google over its advertising practices. The Justice Department filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google in January to break its digital advertising monopoly, and the European Commission filed a similar suit on June 14. The UK antitrust authority has also filed a similar lawsuit. Investigate Google’s advertising practices.
“News publishers rely on digital advertising revenue to provide timely, cutting-edge reporting and the critical content that communities rely on,” Gannett CEO Mike Reed said in a statement. there is,” he said. Not only will your income increase, but you will also be forced to shrink and influence your local news. “
Gannett publishes more than 200 daily newspapers nationwide, including USA Today, the Arizona Republic, and the Palm Beach Post. The publisher said in its lawsuit that it has closed more than 170 publications since 2019.
“These allegations are absolutely false,” Dan Taylor, Google’s vice president of advertising, said in a response to the lawsuit on Tuesday.
Publishers have a lot of options for ad tech, Taylor said, and with Google’s tools, “the publisher gets the majority of the revenue.”
“We intend to show the court how our advertising products benefit publishers and help fund online content,” Taylor added.
Nearly 80% of Google’s $60 billion in revenue last year came from advertising, which underpins popular services like search, YouTube and email.
