On Sunday, Google disputed claims from a group of lawyers, led by
slotxo Texas-based Ken Paxton, that the ad purchasing with Facebook was anti-competitive.In a blog post, Google's economic policy director, Adam Cohen, called the case from 10 Republican-led states a The statement was Google's most comprehensive response to the lawsuit, where it was the only one who named Facebook a "conspirator" (although Facebook was not named the defendant). Two more complaints were faced by a group of lawyers and one from the Justice Department.The statement follows a New York Times article on Sunday that elaborated on the alleged deal, citing previously unauthorized draft complaints, The Wall Street Journal reported. With the draft not certified in December
According to the complaint, as the Times described, Google executives saw a "real threat" in Facebook's 2017 announcement that it was testing a move into inventory. Facebook was considering a header bidding program at the time. A form of ad buying that helps publishers avoid being dependent on Google's platform.But the project was over when the two reached a deal in 2018 for Facebook to join Google's Open Bidding program, allowing competitive ad exchanges alongside bids. But have to pay a fee The deal, unlike other deals offered by its affiliate partners, said members interviewed by the Times, who declined to be identified for fear it would harm their relationship with Google.Google is accused of giving Facebook more time to bid on ads than any other member of the partner, according to documents and interviews presented by the Times.Google is also accused of giving Facebook more insight on who will get it. Receive endless and guaranteed advertisements.
The "win rate" bid for the Times reported two agreements to "Cooperate and help" each other in the event of a review of the competition agreement under the said agreement.In a blog post responding to the allegations, Cohen defended Open Bidding as a useful tool for publishers, Cohen wrote that Open Bidding solved some of the problems with header bidding. For example, slow loading pages and header bids are still a growing market, referring to the 2019 eMarketer report.Cohen noted that Google's deal with Facebook was widely reported at the time and said it allowed Facebook and its advertisers to participate in Open Bidding.We certainly don't run auctions," Cohen wrote. The deal did not prevent Facebook from conducting header auctions and continues to require companies and ad networks to bid the highest bid to win, Cohen wrote. He also said that Google's fees for advertisers were below the industry average and said there was a lot of competition in this area.
Partnerships like these are common in the industry and we have similar agreements with many other companies,” a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement. “Facebook continues to invest in these partnerships and build new partnerships, which help increase our engagement. Compete in ad auctions to produce the best results for advertisers and publishers. Any suggestion that this kind of agreement is jeopardizing competition is unfounded.A day after a Texas-led group filed a lawsuit against Google, a coalition of 38 states and territories sued Google over another set of antitrust concerns, including alleged exclusion contracts and behavior. Discriminate against competitors on search results pages The Justice Department and a Republican-led state group previously sued Google over some concerns about the contract. Facebook faces complaints from the Federal Trade Commission and lawyers in general from 48 states and territories claiming to violate antitrust laws.
