Google is in hot water as another adtech platform sues over its tech practices.
This week, Teads filed a lawsuit against Google LLC and Alphabet Inc., which alleges that Google’s historical ad tech practices restricted fair competition.
The 85-page filing claims that tying Google Ads and AdX “deprived rival exchanges of scale,” to the tune of 6.88 trillion more impressions between 2017 and 2023.
The lawsuit follows a federal ruling by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, which found Google liable for monopolising the market for open-web display ad exchanges.
"For years, Google used its dominance to suppress fair competition and distort the digital ad tech ecosystem to its own advantage,” said David Kostman, Chief Executive Officer of Teads, who added that the lawsuit has been filed to recover the financial damages caused to its business and “restore a transparent, competitive marketplace for publishers and advertisers.”
Teads is just the latest supply-side platform (SSP) to file against the giant, with Magnite, OpenX, and PubMatic among those also launching claims.
In a statement to ADWEEK, Google said that the allegations are “meritless.”
Beyond this particular lawsuit, Google’s wider practices and features have been under the microscope this year. In the UK, following the CMA designating the giant with “strategic market status,” the watchdog introduced conduct requirements.
The requirements mean that publishers can opt-out of Google AI Overviews, and Google must ensure publisher content is “properly attributed” in AI-generated search results.
The tech company has also come under fire for the recent rollout of its Earth AI tool, a feature which allowed users to overlay images onto satellite imagery. Following backlash, on 31st July, just 48 hours after launch, Google announced it was rolling back to work on “implementing stronger guardrails.”
