Google owner Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) is facing a potential lawsuit from the US Department of Justice (DOJ) over its dominance within the digital advertising market.
An antitrust case could be filed as early as Tuesday, according to a report from Bloomberg, marking the second monopoly case brought by the department against Google and one of several government competition suits.
Google bestrides a 28.6% share of the global digital advertising market, worth an estimated US$626.8bn, followed by Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:FB)’s Facebook with 23.7%, as per figures from Statista.
In its other case, the DOJ suggested Google prevented competition within the ad market through exclusive agreements with phone makers and is due to go to trial in September, after originally being filed in 2020.
Advertising is Google’s main source of income, accounting for around 80% of its revenue and amounting to some US$209.5bn in 2021, up from US$36.5bn in 2011 following acquisitions of several other advertising firms.
Parent Alphabet has been at the centre of many legal cases over the past year, including in November in the US where it paid out US$392mln to settle dispute with 40 states over location tracking.
Last year the department said large digital platforms such as Google, Amazon and Facebook were a threat to open markets, backing a bill from the Biden administration aimed at banning them from abusing their market dominance.
It was also fined twice in India in October, for roughly £238mln, over anti-competitive practices that saw it accused of forcing app developers to use its own billing service.
Suits filed in the UK and Netherlands against Google claimed damages of up to €25bn ($25.4bn) on behalf of publishers, it was reported in September.