Gannett Takes on Google in Lawsuit Over Advertising Monopolies

Summary

Gannett, the largest newspaper publisher in the United States, filed a civil antitrust lawsuit against Google in June 2023. The suit alleged that Google had unlawfully acquired and maintained monopolies over the digital advertising technology stack — including the tools publishers use to sell ad inventory and the exchanges where ad auctions are conducted — to the severe financial detriment of news publishers.

Gannett argued that although the U.S. digital advertising market had grown to roughly $200 billion, newspapers' ad revenue had simultaneously collapsed by 70% over the same period, a dynamic it attributed in large part to Google's stranglehold over the ad tech ecosystem. The lawsuit closely echoed arguments made by the U.S. Department of Justice in its own antitrust case against Google, and was seen as part of a broader push by the news industry to hold the tech giant accountable for the financial devastation of local and national journalism.