Google Hit By Lawsuit For Alleged Monopoly Violations In Advertising Technology: Report

PubMatic Inc. (PUBM) has reportedly sued Alphabet Inc.’s (GOOG) (GOOGL) Google in a federal court in Virginia over allegations of monopoly violations in the advertising technology field.

According to a Bloomberg report, PubMatic CEO Rajeev Goel stated that a prior federal judge's ruling in April, which determined that Google had illegally monopolized the advertising services market, was “meaningful but not complete.”

Google’s shares were up 0.4% in Monday’s opening trade, while PubMatic’s shares gained 0.6%. Retail sentiment on Stocktwits around Google trended in the ‘extremely bullish’ territory, while users were ‘bearish’ about PubMatic.

“It felt like for many years no matter how well we innovated there was a barrier holding us back. That barrier wasn’t the limits of our technology. It was Google’s illegal monopoly. Every time we adapted or innovated, Google found new ways to stack the deck,” Goel said in an interview, according to the report.

In April, Judge Leonie Brinkema observed that Google had broken the law to dominate the online advertising technology space. A part of Google’s advertising business is aided by the acquisition of DoubleClick for $3.1 billion in 2008. The antitrust lawsuit was brought by the U.S. Department of Justice in 2023, which sought to break up Google’s advertising business, or at least force it to divest Google Ad Manager.

On Friday, the European Union hit Google with a $3.27 billion antitrust fine over its advertising tech practices in the region.

“Today’s decision shows that Google abused its dominant position in adtech, harming publishers, advertisers, and consumers. This behaviour is illegal under EU antitrust rules. Google must now come forward with a serious remedy to address its conflicts of interest, and if it fails to do so, we will not hesitate to impose strong remedies,” said Teresa Ribera, European Commission’s Executive Vice-President for Clean, Just and Competitive Transition.

GOOGL stock is up 25% year-to-date, while PUBM stock is down 43%.

Also See: Why Is ASTS Stock Falling Today?

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