American justice decided, at the beginning of January, to lift part of the seals on the complaint filed by fifteen attorneys general led by the Texan Ken Paxton against Google. Revealed on January 14, the complaint is an updated version of a previous lawsuit from December 2020, accusing Google of manipulating ad auctions for its benefit.
The digital advertising market manipulated?
Google is one, if not the biggest player in the monetization of digital content. The company is inevitable, as much for its tools of purchases, sales, as advertising display. A dominant position that would have been exploited to distort advertising markets through a series of secret programs developed by company employees.
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One of them, the Bernanke project, is accused of having, on its own, reduced publishers’ revenues by 40%, according to internal company documents. It was allegedly used to artificially inflate ad prices. An accusation denied by Google. Mountain View assures that it was used for ” optimize advertiser bids ” according to wall street journal.
The other aspect that emerges from the complaint of the attorneys general is the agreement between Facebook, number two in digital advertising and Google, number one. This deal, dated 2018, would have allowed Facebook to win a fixed percentage of advertising auctions.
For prosecutors, this is a hidden way of fixing prices and an illegal advantage for Facebook on Google’s advertising exchange. This agreement has been known for a long time, the opening of the seals made it possible to confirm the involvement of the highest executives of the two companies.
Google and Facebook recognize a “legal” agreement
According to the complaint, reported by Politico, the agreement was signed by Philipp Schindler, Vice President and Director of Advertising Sales and Operations at Google, and Ms. [nom barré], chief operating officer and member of the board of directors of Facebook, who had herself once led advertising at Google “. The name crossed out matches that of Sheryl Sandberg.
Documents would prove that Philipp Schindler just like Sheryl Sandberg, would have referred to their respective leaders given the importance of the agreement, namely Sunder Pichai and Mark Zuckerberg. The two companies did acknowledge an agreement, but they denied any illegality.
For Google” Despite Attorney General Paxton’s three attempts to rewrite his complaint, it is still full of inaccuracies and has no legal basis. “. The company’s spokesperson took the opportunity to protect its CEO, ” We sign hundreds of deals every year that don’t require CEO approval, and this was no different. “.
Facebook, now Meta, is not the subject of the complaint, but also defended itself by stating, ” Meta’s non-exclusive auction agreement with Google and similar agreements we have with other auction platforms have helped increase competition for ad placements “.
This complaint, against Google, adds up to that led by the Department of Justice and the attorneys general on the “research” activity of the company. A trial could take place in 2023.