Google vs. Gannett: Who Will Win The Legal Showdown?

Look who's making headlines today; Google has taken the center stage in a new courtroom drama!

Step into the legal arena and discover why they're facing the heat.

According to CNBC, the new lawsuit is one in a long list of cases against Google for alleged anti-competitive behavior. The US publisher Gannett has now added a claim that the technology corporation illegally monopolized the market for advertising technology.

This is the second case the U.S. Department of Justice has filed against Google; the first one targeted the company's distribution practices for its search engine. Similar allegations were made in the first case, alleging that Google's dominance in the advertising market violated antitrust rules.

“With control over the largest ad exchange and ad server — both of which Google acquired rather than developed — Google has carried out a sophisticated, anti-competitive, and deceptive scheme for well over a decade,” Gannett argued in a complaint filed in the Southern District of New York. The publisher said Google’s broad control of the ad tech market has hurt news publishers, claiming online readership has grown while online ad spending has decreased for publishers.

“Google has monopolized market trading to their advantage and at the expense of publishers, readers and everyone else,” Gannett Chairman and CEO Michael Reed said in a statement. “Digital advertising is the lifeblood of the online economy. Without free and fair competition for digital ad space, publishers cannot invest in their newsrooms.”


Google found itself in the midst of a raging debate. Yet, the company stood firm and fired back at Gannett!

The Vice President of Google Ads, Dan Taylor, called Gannett’s claims “simply wrong” in a statement following the lawsuit.

“Publishers have many options to choose from when it comes to using advertising technology to monetize — in fact, Gannett uses dozens of competing ad services, including Google Ad Manager,” Taylor said. “And when publishers choose to use Google tools, they keep the vast majority of revenue. We’ll show the court how our advertising products benefit publishers and help them fund their content online.”


This is not the first time Google has found itself accused of anti-trust discrepancies. The battle between Gannett and Google is in full swing now. The question remains: who will come out on top?
Is Gannett right making claims based on Google’s dominance of the digital ads market? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!