Advertising exchange PubMatic (NASDAQ:PUBM) has sued Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) in federal court, seeking billions of dollars and to “restore fair competition” in advertising technology after findings that Google monopolized the space.
A U.S. District Court found in April that Google sought to acquire and maintain monopoly power in the ad server and ad exchange markets in Web advertising.
Now PubMatic has sued in Virginia’s Eastern District for financial damages and behavioral remedies.
Last month, ad exchange OpenX Technologies filed a similar suit against Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) in the same Virginia court.
“Google’s systematic abuse of its vast resources and immense power has harmed our business and distorted a marketplace that should have rewarded innovation and fueled transparency and competition,” PubMatic co-founder/CEO Rajeev Goel said. “Instead, anticompetitive practices limited monetization for publishers, raised costs for advertisers, and ultimately reduced choice for consumers.”
Last week, Google received a fine of almost $3.5B from Europe’s competition watchdog over abusing market power in ad-tech.
PubMatic stock (NASDAQ:PUBM) was up 0.2% in early Monday trading, while Alphabet was slightly higher: (GOOG) +0.6%, (GOOGL) +0.6%.