According to Axios‘ report, a group of more than 200 newspapers is suing Google and Facebook, claiming that the tech giants are unfairly manipulating the advertising market, which they say harms their publications.
A unified front of lawyers and law firms are handling the suit against the government, and they’re filing it on behalf of some 30 different companies.
Google and Facebook are sued by over 200 newspaper
There are approximately 200 separate newspapers spread throughout the country that are controlled by these media companies. Axios has a shared full list of publications involved.
A group of state attorneys general filed another antitrust case against Google in March 2019, claiming the company had illegally monopolized the digital advertising market. The states alleged that Google reached an illicit agreement with Facebook Inc to defraud buyers and sellers of online ads through bidding manipulation.
Newspapers, if they win, can be paid significant money for what is called treble damages. They will be paid three times the damage if that’s been proven.
Newspapers aren’t doing very well these days. According to a Pew Research study published last year, the newspaper sector lost 62 percent of its ad revenues in the past decade. On the contrary, companies like Google are making billions of dollars from their advertising business.
A Google spokesperson regarding this issue told Gizmodo that:
“These claims are just wrong. The online advertising space is crowded and competitive, our ad tech fees are lower than reported industry averages, and publishers keep the vast majority of revenue earned when using our products. We are one of the world’s leading financial supporters of journalism and have provided billions of dollars to support quality journalism in the digital age.”
Yes, Google spends a lot of money on journalism initiatives, but it’s a drop in the bucket compared to the revenue that newspapers once generated.
