Alphabet’s (GOOGL) Google search tool serves billions of people, functioning as the key interface with the internet.
And by compiling data on what people are searching for, the company in turn gains precise insight into topics individuals are interested in. That in turn makes it possible for the company to sell ads to advertisers with unprecedented precision, making them much more effective than more traditional ad mediums and fueling an incredibly powerful money making machine.
But now the company is facing an unprecedented and huge challenged.
The Department of Justice Acts Against Google
The Department of Justice and eight states are suing Google seeking to break up the company’s operations in a bid to boost competition and lower prices for advertisers.
The action was announced Tuesday in Washington.
The 140-page lawsuit details a variety of complaints about Google’s practices, alleging that the company has thwarted competition by buying up potential rivals and by employing aggressive tactics against publishers and advertisers to get them to use its products and services.
The lawsuit seeks to enjoin Google from those practices and to force it to divest at least some of its operations.
The suit asks the court to “order the divestiture of, at minimum, the Google Ad Manager suite, including both Google’s publisher ad server, DFP, and Google’s ad exchange, AdX, along with any additional structural relief as needed to cure any anticompetitive harm.”
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
The states joining the DOJ in the lawsuit are Virginia, California, Colorado, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Tennessee.
