The US Department of Justice and eight states, including New York, California and Virginia, are expected to sue Google (Alphabet's holding company) for monopolizing the online digital advertising market. The lawsuit is demanding that Google split up its advertising arm.

Justice Department Antitrust Commissioner Jonathan Kanter, who announced the lawsuit at a press conference Tuesday, said the intent of the Virginia federal court filing is to hold Google accountable for its long-standing monopoly in the digital advertising technology market, "which content creators use to sell ads. , and advertisers use to buy ads online."

Google called the US Justice Department's lawsuit "an attempt to pick winners and losers in the highly competitive ad tech sector." As stated in the company blog, the case "largely duplicates an unsubstantiated lawsuit by the Texas Attorney General, much of which was recently dismissed in federal court." "The Justice Department is pushing ahead with a flawed argument that will slow innovation, raise ad fees, and hamper the growth of thousands of small businesses and publishers," the company said.

Google also accused the US Department of Justice of mishandling its advertising products, noting that its solutions work alongside competing technologies, making it "easy" for publishers and advertisers to choose the right services. "No one is required to use our advertising technologies - advertisers choose them because they are effective," Google said.

Google dominates the $278.6 billion U.S. digital advertising market, controlling much of the technology used to buy, sell, and serve online advertising. According to the Justice Department, Google's dominance makes at least 30 cents of every dollar advertisers spend on its online advertising tools.

The Justice Department lawsuit also seeks damages for allegedly inflated prices for federal government agencies, such as the US Army, that bought online ads. The agency alleges that the US government has spent more than $100 million on online display advertising since 2019, although the lawsuit does not specify how much the company is to reimburse. This lawsuit could take years to process.