States file amended lawsuit against Google Advertising Monopoly

A group of U.S. states filed Friday in a New York federal court an amended lawsuit against Google advertising monopoly with allegations of breaking antitrust laws by adopting strongarm strategies to empower its ads business.

Alphabet’s unit has been under fire for its affiliated methodologies to heighten its supremacy in the advertising market, with regulatory scrutiny exposing the search engine to various lawsuits, with the U.S. Justice of Department’s monopoly lawsuit being the most prominent one of all.

The legal action directed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to push the giant to halt back Google advertising monopoly. Puerto Rico, alongside 16 states, also altered their lawsuits to incorporate additional hard evidence to strengthen its allegations.

According to lawmakers close to the matter, any additional amendments added solely address Google’s violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act to structure a strong household for itself as the leading online advertising company in the field.

“Just because Attorney General Paxton asserts something doesn’t make it true. This lawsuit is riddled with inaccuracies,” Google spokesperson informed The Register.

“There is vigorous competition in online advertising, which has reduced ad tech fees, and expanded options for publishers and advertisers. We will strongly defend ourselves from his baseless claims in court,” the representative added.

First legislated by the U.S. Congress in 1890, the Sherman Antitrust Act centers on curbing the establishment’s power in interfering with trade and reducing economic rivalry. The Act applies to any agreement to fix prices, curb industrial output, share markets, and exclude competition. In Google’s case, the company broke the Act’s provision making it unlawful to monopolize any part of trade or commerce in the U.S.

The initial filling incorporated much more details to how Google’s Project Bernanke – a so-called secret internal program initiated in 2013 – stands on how the company depended on data collected from its station in the tech industry to guarantee that advertisers registered through AdX, its ad system.

This helped the Mountain View company to ensure adverts their ads would appear as the leading actions on its ads’ platform on its site. Some of the auctions involved offers submitted via third-party platforms and tools that were not given access to the data the engine had.

Google never publicized its data usage and goals behind its use, leading to escalated insider trading for the company and its advertisers.

One year after its launch, the giant’s program delivered an additional $230 million in revenue, according to the filing. In parallel, the lawsuit alleges that the program’s system was optimized to a division labeled Global Bernanke in 2015, followed by a third edition named Bell that delivered another $140 million in a year.