A Gannett, largest newspaper publisher in the UShandles Googleclaiming that the tech giant holds a monopoly in the digital advertising market. Publisher USA today and more than 200 local publications on Tuesday filed a lawsuit in New York federal court seeking unspecified damages. Gannett claims in court documents that Google and its parent company Alphabet control how publishers buy and sell ads online.

“As a result, the revenue of Google’s publishers and ad technology competitors is greatly reduced, while Google is enjoying exorbitant monopoly profits.“, the lawsuit says.

According to eMarketer, Google controls about a quarter of the US digital advertising market, while Target, Amazon This tik tak together they make up another third. News publishers and other sites make up roughly the remaining 40%. Big Tech’s market share is starting to decline slightly, but Google remains the biggest player on its own.

This means that publishers often depend, at least in part, on Google’s advertising technology to sustain their operations: Gannett claims that Google controls 90% of the publisher advertising market.

Google denies monopoly

Michael Reed, chairman and chief executive officer of Gannett, said Tuesday that Google’s dominance of the online advertising industry has happened.to the detriment of editors, readers and all others“.

“Digital advertising fuels the online economy“, he added. “Without free and fair competition for digital advertising space, publishers cannot invest in their newsrooms.“

Dan Taylor, Google’s vice president of global advertising, told CNN that the allegations in the lawsuit “just wrong“.”Publishers have many options to choose from when it comes to using ad tech to monetize—in fact, Gannett uses dozens of competing ad services, including Google Ad Manager.“, Taylor said in a statement on Tuesday.And when publishers use Google’s tools, they get the most revenue.“

He continued: “Let’s show the court how our advertising products benefit publishers and help them fund their online content.“

Gannett’s lawsuit comes amid a growing number of antitrust complaints from Google in the United States and the European Union regarding its advertising business, which remains its main source of profit.

European Union officials said last week that Google’s advertising business should be unbundled, saying the tech giant’s stake in various parts of the digital advertising supply chain creates an “internal conflict of interest” that could harm competition.

Earlier this year, the US Department of Justice and eight states sued Google, accusing the company of damaging competition with its dominant position in the online advertising market, and calling for its breakup.

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Source: CNN

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