The Rising Influence of Rising Affluence

[DewDiligence]

USDOJ sues GOOGL to stop (alleged) anticompetitive behavior in online-advertising business:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-sues-google-for-alleged-antitrust-violations-in-its-ad-tech-business-11674582792

Filed in federal court in Virginia on Tuesday, the case alleges that Google abuses monopoly power in the ad-tech industry, hurting web publishers and advertisers that try to use competing products.
The lawsuit asks the court to unwind Google’s “anticompetitive acquisitions” and prevent the company from obtaining similar dominance in the future.

…Justice Department’s new suit targets the subset of that ad business that brokers the buying and selling of ads on other websites and apps. Google reported $31.7 billion in revenue in 2021 from that ad-brokering activity, or about 12% of Alphabet’s total revenue. Google distributes about 70% of that revenue to web publishers and developers [i.e. Google takes a 30% cut of this revenue for use of its platform—Dew].

Last year, Google offered to split off parts of its ad-tech business into a separate company under the Alphabet umbrella to fend off the most recent Justice Department investigation. Justice Department officials rejected the offer and decided to pursue the lawsuit instead.

Note: This suit is separate from the 2000 DOJ suit against GOOGL for alleged anticompetitive behavior in the online-search business.