Attorney General Lynn Fitch joined a multistate coalition of 10 states in a lawsuit against Google for multiple violations of Federal and State Antitrust Laws.
“Google’s exclusionary practices not only locked out competition, which distorts the market and reduces innovation,” said Attorney General Lynn Fitch, “but also the company’s misrepresentations to consumers, particularly regarding their privacy, cause real harm to consumers. I joined this lawsuit to protect competition and innovation in our technology markets and to protect consumer privacy for all Mississippians.”
The Internet revolutionized the way people consume content as well as the type of ads that companies can purchase to reach consumers, including online display ads. In addition to representing both the buyers and the sellers of online display advertising, Google competes directly against the buyers and sellers they separately represent, all while operating the largest exchange of these products. Google’s exchange trades in billions of ad impressions a day.
Today’s lawsuit alleges that Google monopolized, or attempted to monopolize, products and services used by advertisers and publishers in online display advertising. The complaint also alleges that Google engaged in false, misleading and deceptive acts while selling, buying and auctioning online display ads. These anticompetitive and deceptive practices demonstrably harmed publisher’s ability to monetize content, increased advertiser’s costs to advertise and directly harmed consumers.
Google’s monopolization of online display advertising includes an anticompetitive agreement with Facebook, misrepresenting customers, suppressing competition, and harming consumers in violation of antitrust and consumer protection laws.
Read a copy of the lawsuit here.
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Release from Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch.
Magnolia Tribune
