Washington is the latest US state to join an antitrust lawsuit targeting Google and its ad business.
Washington state attorney general Bob Ferguson joined the lawsuit against Google that was filed in January by the US State Department and eight other states: California, Colorado, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Tennessee and Virginia.
The lawsuit aims to break up Google’s advertising platforms, citing the apparent monopoly by Google.
According to the lawsuit, Google’s market share for publisher ad servers was at 90% in 2015; it continues at high levels, resulting in websites earning less and advertisers paying more.
Domain investors making use of the PPC revenue model have witnessed their ad-sourced earnings shrink down to nothing in the past decade. Google acquired online advertising company DoubleClick in 2008, squashing the competition since.
Google’s angle is that the company has to face competition from Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and others in the advertising business. But apparently, there are some activities that might be breaking the law.
Source: Geekwire.
Story kudos: Chris G.
The headline says Google is keeping 90% of ad revenues, but the article states that they hold a 90% share of the ad-serving market. I think there is a difference.