US Justice Department reportedly planning to sue Google over search ads

September 30, 2020

A report by Reuters says the U.S. Justice Department is expected to sue Alphabet’s Google as soon as next week. The DOJ is reportedly currently urging state attorneys general to sign onto the lawsuit, according to three sources familiar with the process.

The lawsuit is expected to accuse Google, builder of the world’s dominant search engine, of looking to disadvantage rivals such as Microsoft’s Bing by depriving them of the data about users and user preferences that they need to improve and to advertise to people.

The Justice Department has also been investigating Google’s “search advertising,” the ads that appear under a search box if a person looks up a consumer item like “dishwasher.” Google controls the sale of the space under these searches, as well as the tools to make those ad sales.

Google has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. The Justice Department declined to comment.

Regarding search, Google has said users have access to other information sources, like Twitter for news and Amazon for products. In advertising, it says it competes with a large array of companies, including Oracle and Verizon.

State attorneys general, many of whom are already investigating other Google businesses, are in the process of considering whether to sign on to the federal lawsuit, the sources said.

It could be recalled that the European Commission slapped Google with a €1.49 billion fine just last year for trying to cement its dominance in search ads by limiting the use of rival search engines.