Magnite, the largest independent sell-side platform (SSP) in the ad industry, filed a federal lawsuit against Google today, alleging that the tech behemoth unlawfully monopolized the ad exchange and publisher ad server markets. Google denies the allegations.
In an 81-page complaint reviewed by ADWEEK, Magnite claims that Google’s adtech practices limited publisher choice, unfairly restricted competition and consumer choice, and hampered its business.
“Google’s exclusionary conduct has drastically altered the supply paths through which available display advertising inventory is sold, reducing payouts to publishers, burdening advertisers and publishers with lower-quality matches of advertisements to inventory, and inhibiting choice and innovation across the adtech stack,” the complaint reads.
The company alleges Google forced advertisers who used Google Ads, previously known as AdWords, to buy display ads via Google’s exchange, AdX, rather than giving them the option to use other exchanges. AdX’s intractable integration with Google’s ad server further locked advertisers into Google’s adtech stack, the lawsuit says.
Google also manipulated ad auctions, implementing unfair pricing rules and adjusting revenue-sharing dynamically to favor Google, Magnite alleges.
In one example outlined in the lawsuit, Magnite points to a 2017 scheme referred to as Project Poirot internally at Google, which allegedly reduced bids from Google’s demand-side platform Display & Video 360 for impressions routed via rival exchanges.
Magnite claims that as a result of Google’s anti-competitive adtech practices, it has lost profits, market share, and scale. It cites cost-cutting efforts including layoffs of more than 13% of its staff—equating to over 100 jobs—as well as forced strategic shifts, and missed opportunities to take advantage of emerging ad formats as tangible fallout from Google’s alleged behavior.
“Magnite was founded to help publishers thrive by maximizing their advertising yield through innovative technology, trusted guidance, and a transparent marketplace that efficiently connects them to buyers,” said Michael Barrett, CEO of Magnite, in a statement. “For years, Google undermined our ability to execute on this mission with practices that favored its own business over the health of the open web, causing harm to publishers, advertisers, and partners like us.”