Alphabet has recently come under great fire and this time, it is the US Department of Justice (DoJ) that is pressuring the tech company.
Alphabet, which is Google’s parent company, is now facing allegations imposed by the US DoJ. The Justice Department has launched a probe where it has accused Google of using its marketing dominance.
The allegations are pertaining to the digital ad market, where Google seems to be using its market dominance.
The US DoJ has gone against Alphabet and it wants to investigate exactly how the company has been using its market dominance.
Google Sued by the DoJ
This is not the first time the DoJ has sued Google. It had done it back in 2020 as well and at that time, it was accompanied by the eleven states’ Attorneys General.
They had alleged them for exclusionary as well as anti-competitive practices. The regulator claimed that these practices were pertaining to search advertising as well as search markets.
Then the DoJ filed another complaint against Google and this time, it was filed at the Federal Court. In this particular complaint, the DoJ demanded that Google must be stripped of its Ad manager and the AdX exchange divisions.
For the second lawsuit, the DoJ was able to gain the support of several Attorneys General. According to the records, eight states’ Attorneys General accompanied the DoJ in the particular complaint.
Even the California State Attorneys General supported the Department of Justice when it filed a complaint against Google.
Statement by the DoJ
Even this time, the DoJ has adopted a similar claim against Google for gaining prominence in the digital marketing sector.
It has claimed that the search giant has used unlawful, exclusionary, and anticompetitive tactics to several get rid of or eliminate any threats.
The company does not want to lose its dominance in the digital advertising industry and it is doing whatever there is in its power to increase its influence.
Google Fined $8 Billion in Europe Alone
The Competition Commission in Europe is also onto Google for its activities in the region. It has made similar claims as the Department of Justice pertaining to the tech giant’s influence in the digital ad market.
The European Competition Commission has sued the ad-selling and ad-buying platforms of Google in the digital marketing sector.
They have fined Google several times for antitrust and so far, the company has paid over $8 billion to the Competition Commission in the form of fines.
Among the $8 billion fines was the $5 billion levy that the search giant had to pay in the year 2018. The particular levy was linked to the exclusivity that Google had introduced for smartphones.
The contracts that the android smartphone manufacturers had to sign required them to develop applications exclusively for android and not for other platforms.
Media Statement by Google
Google officials also released a media statement in their defense against the allegations made by the DoJ.
They claimed that the technologies they offer are for the benefit of users and small businesses. Their services help fund the content that is added by the developers on their websites and applications.
Their platform is doing much more than just offering them the opportunity to generate funds and revenues for more content.
They are even offering small businesses the ability to reach out to people and potential customers from all over the world.
The competition in the online advertisement sector has been constantly rising. This is the reason why advertisements have become more relevant and targeted for each customer in recent years.
They have even started to provide their services at much cheaper rates than they did in the past. This is all because of the competition that they have been facing in the digital advertisement sector.
If it weren’t for competition, they would have never lowered their ad tech fees because they would be the shot-callers in such a situation.
Despite the media statement, the shares for Google were not able to make it through the difficult situation. The tech giant’s shares shed 1.25% of their value in the Tuesday trading session.