Justice Department, 8 states sue Google over digital ad market dominance

The Justice Department and eight states filed suit against Alphabet’s search engine Google for allegedly monopolizing the digital advertising market.

“Google abuses its monopoly power to disadvantage website publishers and advertisers who dare to use competing ad tech products in a search for higher quality, or lower cost, matches,” the Justice Department said in its 149-page complaint filed in Virginia federal court.

New York, California, Virginia and Colorado were among the states that signed onto the lawsuit, which seeks to break up Google’s massive advertising business.

“We allege that Google has used anti-competitive, exclusionary and unlawful conduct to eliminate or severely diminish any threat to its dominance over digital advertising technologies,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said.

Google’s advertising business is responsible for around 80% of its revenue. This year alone, Google anticipates generating $73.8 billion in digital ad revenue.