Gannett Sues Google Over Ad Dominance

The nation’s largest newspaper chain sued Google on Tuesday, arguing that the search giant’s dominance of the digital ad marketplace is stifling the struggling local news industry.

The Washington Post reports the complaint from Gannett, filed in federal court in New York, alleges violations of antitrust and consumer protection laws. It’s just the latest challenge to Google and parent company Alphabet on this front, following actions from the U.S. Justice Department, the government of Australia and even a group of small West Virginia weekly papers.

In an op-ed published in Gannett’s national newspaper, USA Today, company CEO Mike Reed argued that Google “has monopolized the markets for important software and technology products that publishers and advertisers use to buy and sell ad space.” As a result, he wrote, even while online readership is on the rise, newspapers are reaping little of the $200 billion market for online ads.

“Gannett’s lawsuit seeks to restore fair competition in the digital advertising marketplace that Google has demolished,” he said in a separate news release. “Digital advertising is the lifeblood of the online economy. Without free and fair competition for digital ad space, publishers cannot invest in their newsrooms.”

In a Tuesday statement, Google ads vice president Dan Taylor strongly denied the claims made against the company.

“Publishers have many options to choose from when it comes to using advertising technology to monetize,” he said, adding that Gannett uses dozens of competing ad services. He argued that Google’s ad services allow publishers to keep most of the revenue.

Google’s competitors and critics have long accused it of using its position in the advertising world to favor its own products over those of others. The advertising ecosystem is dizzyingly complex, encompassing hundreds of companies offering a range of services, such as helping to design ads and tracking whether anyone clicked on them.