The owner of the Daily Mail website, Associated Newspapers, is suing Google, saying the tech company's dominance in online advertising has harmed its business.
The suit, filed Monday in federal court in New York, says Google punishes publishers' search results if they don't sell enough ad space through Google and that its control over the ad market depresses prices for publishers. “Google wields its monopoly search engine to entrench its ad-tech dominance,” the suit alleges, citing instances when Daily Mail's traffic from search fell unexpectedly.
The company says that since the beginning of 2021, its U.S. search traffic to its website, known for celebrity photos and tabloid stories, has dropped by more than 50%.