Google has to deal with another antitrust dispute in its home country: The US Department of Justice filed a competition lawsuit against the Internet company on Tuesday.

It accuses him of having abused his dominant position in the market for technologies related to online advertising.

It demands a dismantling of Google's advertising technology activities and damages.

Roland Lindner

Business correspondent in New York.

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The lawsuit targets Google's business as a kind of agent for ads on other websites.

According to the authority, the group has "monopolized" "key technologies" in this area, on which the operators of these websites and advertising customers depend.

The company abused this dominance to keep the competition in check.

The ministry speaks of a “systemic pattern of misconduct”.

In a statement, Google countered that the authority was trying to “pick out winners and losers” and that there was strong competition in the advertising technology market.

Second major antitrust lawsuit against Google in less than three years

This is the second major antitrust lawsuit against Google in less than three years.

In the fall of 2020, the Justice Department filed a lawsuit accusing the company of abusing its dominant position in the internet search and related advertising business.

For example, it is said to have entered into anti-competitive agreements to make its search engine the standard on mobile phones.

A trial is scheduled to begin in September in this dispute.

US antitrust authorities have recently demonstrated greater determination to crack down on the country's big tech companies.

For example, the FTC, the second authoritative antitrust authority next to the Ministry of Justice, filed an antitrust lawsuit against today's Meta group a good two years ago, with which it wants to force its breakup.

She wants him to have to give up the Instagram and Whatsapp services that he once bought.

Antitrust investigations are also underway against Amazon and Apple, but these have not yet led to any lawsuits.

The FTC is also currently trying to block a takeover agreed by Meta.

In the past, the American authorities have been much more forgiving.

Google, for example, was the subject of antitrust investigations a decade ago, but these did not result in a lawsuit.

There was only one settlement in which the company made minor concessions on its business practices.

The European cartel watchdogs, on the other hand, have been aggressively targeting the tech giants for years.

Between 2017 and 2019, the EU Commission imposed three antitrust fines on Google totaling more than 8 billion euros.

The first case concerned a price comparison service, the second the Android operating system and the third ads next to Internet search engine results.

About a year and a half ago, the EU Commission opened another and broader antitrust case against Google relating to online advertising, which to some extent corresponds to the lawsuit now filed in the USA.