Advertising Exchange PubMatic Files Antitrust Lawsuit Against Google

Advertising exchange PubMatic has filed a lawsuit against Google, seeking billions in damages over claims the tech giant has illegally monopolized the ad technology market. The remedy phase of the DOJ’s antirust case against Google over its ad tech monopoly will begin this month.

Bloomberg reports that the lawsuit, filed on Monday in federal court in Virginia, marks the second case brought by an advertising exchange against Google since a federal judge ruled in April that the company illegally monopolized two key ad tech markets. The earlier ruling found Google in violation of antitrust laws in the markets for ad exchanges and publisher ad servers, the tools used by websites to sell digital ad space.

PubMatic, which helps websites like Elon Musk’s X sell advertising inventory, alleges that Google’s anti-competitive practices have unfairly limited competition and innovation in the ad tech sector for years. “It felt like for many years no matter how well we innovated there was a barrier holding us back,” said PubMatic CEO Rajeev Goel in an interview. “That barrier wasn’t the limits of our technology. It was Google’s illegal monopoly.”

Goel characterized the April ruling against Google as “meaningful but not complete,” emphasizing that PubMatic’s lawsuit aims not just to recover damages, but to ensure fair and open competition in the online advertising market going forward. “Every time we adapted or innovated, Google found new ways to stack the deck,” he said.

The DOJ has called for Google to divest its AdX advertising exchange, while Google argues a breakup is unnecessary and has instead proposed making its ad exchange interoperable with rival platforms. Breitbart News previously reported on the plan the DOJ submitted to the court:

The DOJ’s proposal involves a three-phase structural remedy aimed at stripping Google of the advantages it gained through years of consolidation. The first phase would force Google to provide competing ad exchanges and servers with real-time access to its AdX bidding data through Prebid. The second phase would require Google to open-source its auction logic, the brains behind its DFP ad server. The third and final phase would involve the complete divestiture of both DFP and AdX, placing them under the supervision of a court-appointed trustee and requiring DOJ approval of the eventual buyers.

Under the DOJ’s plan, Google would be prohibited from running an ad exchange for a decade following the divestiture. The proposal also calls for Google to place 50 percent of net revenues from AdX and DFP into escrow until the divestitures are complete, with potential uses including supporting the industry’s transition efforts or helping publishers cover switching costs.

The tech giant also faces a separate antitrust case brought by a group of states led by Texas, as well as numerous lawsuits from publishers and advertisers seeking damages over the same anti-competitive practices. Most of those cases are currently pending in courts in New York.