The news: Ad tech company PubMatic filed a lawsuit Monday against Google for alleged anticompetitive and monopolistic actions in the digital advertising ecosystem.
The lawsuit claimed Google took illegal actions that impacted PubMatic and harmed its ability to grow revenues, citing systematic abuse of Google’s ad dominance that has “limited monetization for publishers, raised costs for advertisers, and ultimately reduced choices for consumers.”
Zooming out: The lawsuit builds on a global string of legal woes for the search giant.
- While a US federal court recently stopped short of requiring Google to divest Chrome, the company is being called to end exclusive search contracts and share data with rivals, opening doors for competitors like Perplexity.
- The US District Court ruled in April that Google operates an illegal ad tech monopoly, marking the second time in under a year that Google was declared a monopolist.
- The Department of Justice is seeking to dismantle Google’s ad tech dominance in an ongoing antitrust lawsuit that would require Google to divest its sell-side ad tech. On Friday, the DOJ said in a filing that Google should be ordered to immediately sell its exchange.
- Google was hit with another anticompetitive lawsuit in August after OpenX accused the company of anticompetitive conduct in the digital ad space, which “crippled competitors” while hiding harmful conduct from advertising customers.
Overseas, the EU fined Google $3.5 billion for abusing its digital advertising dominance, with regulators claiming that Google used its position to shut out rivals, limit advertiser choice, and squeeze publishers—though President Donald Trump has threatened new tariffs in response.