Google Display Ads Antitrust Arbitration: Sign Up Today

Attorneys working with ClassAction.org are gathering advertisers to take legal action against Google in light of allegations that the tech giant violated federal and state antitrust laws by monopolizing the digital advertising services market.

In May 2020, Google was hit with a proposed class action lawsuit over claims that it used its dominance in the online search and search advertising markets to “acquire an illegal monopoly” in brokering display advertising—i.e., placing ads on third-party websites. According to the Google antitrust lawsuit, the company’s overwhelming control over the display ads market, gained through various efforts to eliminate or block competitors, has allowed Google to charge advertisers much higher prices than they would have paid in a competitive market.

Now, attorneys are gathering affected advertisers to take legal action against Google via mass arbitration.

Google Display Ads Network Antitrust Allegations

The antitrust lawsuit accuses Google, the dominant supplier of search advertising, of leveraging its market power to quickly gain control over “all stages of the display advertising market.” Per the case, the tech giant acts as both a broker between advertisers and publishers and a seller of display ads on its own platforms, including YouTube, Google Maps and Google Play.

The lawsuit claims Google gained this market dominance in part by acquiring competitors at every level of the display ads service industry and combining products. According to the suit, this “merge-to-monopolize strategy” resulted in Google combining its ad server and exchange into what became Google Ad Manager and merging its advertiser ad server and demand-side platform into Display & Video 360.

Per the lawsuit, Google has strengthened its monopoly by requiring advertisers to use its display advertising services if they want access to Google’s valuable search-results data and lucrative YouTube video advertising platform. Thus, if an advertiser wants any ads displayed on Google Search or YouTube, they are essentially forced to use Google’s services for the entire campaign, the suit says.

The case further claims that Google hobbled competitors by making its technology incompatible with theirs, causing any interactions with other advertising services to be “inefficient by design.”

The result of these anticompetitive practices, the suit says, is that advertisers and publishers have been left with “little choice” but to use Google’s services to buy and place display ads—and pay inflated prices.

For instance, the case claims Google sets an artificial reserve or floor price in its online ad auctions, which is essentially the minimum bid needed to win an ad placement. Even if all the bids are lower than the floor price, the winning bidder is forced to pay the floor price—which is most often the case, according to the suit. As a result, advertisers almost always pay higher prices in Google’s ad auctions than they would have paid absent Google’s artificial floor price.

Google’s alleged anticompetitive conduct has been at the center of multiple lawsuits and regulatory actions in both the U.S. and Europe, with the company facing a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice and state attorneys general, multiple fines from the European Commission, and, most recently, a class action lawsuit in the U.K. over its apparent monopoly in the online search advertising market.

Is This a Lawsuit? What Am I Signing Up For, Exactly?

You are not signing up for a lawsuit, but rather a process known as mass arbitration. This is a relatively new legal technique that, like a class action lawsuit, allows a large group of people to take action and seek compensation from a company over an alleged wrongdoing. Here is a quick explanation of mass arbitration from our blog:

“[M]ass arbitration occurs when hundreds or thousands of consumers file individual arbitration claims against the same company over the same issue at the same time. The aim of a mass arbitration proceeding is to grant relief on a large scale (similar to a class action lawsuit) for those who sign up.”

Google’s advertising program terms require users to resolve disputes via arbitration, a form of alternative dispute resolution that takes place outside of court before a neutral arbitrator, as opposed to a judge or jury. It’s for this reason that attorneys working with ClassAction.org have decided to handle this matter as a mass arbitration rather than a class action lawsuit.

How Much Does This Cost?

It costs nothing to sign up, and you’ll only need to pay if the attorneys win money on your behalf. Their payment will come as a percentage of your award.

If they don’t win your claim, you don’t pay.

How Much Money Could I Get?

There are no guarantees as to how much money you could get or whether your claim will be successful. However, federal and state antitrust laws provide that companies may be responsible for paying consumers triple the amount of damages they incurred due to violations.

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