US States File Antitrust Complaint against Google
Several US states have filed a lawsuit against Google over antitrust issues and coercive measures to boost its advertising business.
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Google app is seen on a smartphone in this illustration taken, July 13, 2021 (Reuters)
Several US states have filed an amended complaint against Google, which accuses the company of using repressive means and breaking anti-trust laws to boost its already-dominant advertising business.
The amended allegations are just the tip of the iceberg in the lawsuits Google is facing over its practices, including a lawsuit over monopolistic practices filed by the US Justice Department.
The tech giant had lost earlier this week an appeal against the EU over an antitrust decision, with a fine amounting to $2.8.
The lawsuit, which the Texas-led states filed in a federal court in New York, accuses Google of using monopolistic and coercive tactics with advertisers in a bid to dominate the online advertising arena.
The lawsuit underscored how Google uses a secret program, "Project Bernanke", which had been making use of bidding data to give the tech giants advertisement-buying advantages it could not have obtained through legal means.
The advantages saw Google winning ad auctions it could not otherwise win, the states said.