The lawsuits onslaught is happening.
OpenX was the first adtech company to file a follow-on civil suit against Google after the March antitrust ruling, which found Google had illegally monopolized two key adtech markets: publisher ad servers and ad exchanges. Now, Dotdash Meredith (or are we calling them People Inc. 🤔)—one of the world’s largest publishers (People, Travel + Leisure, etc.)—has followed, becoming the first major publisher to take legal action.
In its complaint, Dotdash alleges that Google used its dominance to control how publishers sell inventory, forcing them to transact through Google at “depressed prices.” The result, the suit claims, was reduced revenue for publishers and rivals, while Google pocketed “exorbitant monopoly profits.” The filing also accused Google of unfairly tying its ad exchange to its publisher ad server; running “secret programs” to manipulate auctions and suppress prices; and misleading publishers about how its auctions and adtech worked—all of which, Dotdash argues, caused significant financial harm.
Why This Matters:
The Dotdash suit is part of a growing, potential wave of legal action against Google in the wake of March’s antitrust ruling. That decision established that Google had illegally monopolized the publisher ad server and ad exchange markets, opening the door for companies to seek damages. OpenX was first out of the gate with a follow-on suit, and Dotdash is now the first big publisher to take its shot. Even Magnite, during its latest earnings call, hinted it could pursue similar claims.
The logic is straightforward: if regulators and courts have already determined Google acted unfairly, why wouldn’t other players in the ecosystem try to recover losses they say stemmed from that conduct?
Experts React:
Here are some interesting X posts about the lawsuit:
Our Take:
We more or less saw this coming—not that it’s a surprise. When OpenX filed its lawsuit, we said:
“Well, yeah, it’s a big deal. Frankly, the implications go well beyond OpenX as this marks one of the first major adtech players to file a follow-on civil suit after the DOJ’s antitrust victory. Could it open the floodgates? If OpenX succeeds, for example, will it encourage a wave of litigation from other companies that feel they too were pushed aside by Google’s dominance.”
Well, it looks like that wave is starting. The question now is how Google responds.
Meanwhile, The Information is reporting that as the DOJ prepares to argue Google should be forced to spin off its sell-side adtech unit, that unit has already begun taking steps to operate more independently. Crazy times.
