NEW YORK: Gannett, the largest US newspaper chain and publisher of USA Today, on Tuesday sued Google for trying to corner the market for online advertising by monopolizing ad technology.
In a complaint filed in Manhattan federal court, Gannett, which has more than 200 daily newspapers, said Google’s control over tools for buying and selling online ads forces publishers to sell more cheap ad space to the Alphabet Inc. unit.
Gannett said this leaves Google with “exorbitant monopoly profits,” and “dramatically less revenue” for publishers and its ad technology rivals.
“Digital advertising is the lifeblood of the online economy,” Gannett Chief Executive Mike Reed said in an opinion
published in USA Today. “Without free and fair competition for digital ad space, publishers cannot invest in their newsrooms.”
Google did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Gannett said it wants “very substantial” actual, punitive and triple damages.
The lawsuit adds to legal pressure on Mountain View, California-based Alphabet, already in the crosshairs of regulators on two continents.
On June 14, the European Union brought a similar lawsuit, and said Google might have to sell some of its ad technology.
Five months earlier, the US Department of Justice brought its own case against Google, now joined by 17 US states. Another group of states led by Texas is also suing.
In 2022, Google generated $224.5 billion of advertising revenue, accounting for nearly 80 percent of Alphabet’s overall revenue and a major driver of Alphabet’s overall $60 billion profit.
Advertising lets Google offer many services for free, including email, Android and much of its YouTube video platform.
Google’s first-quarter ad revenue was $54.5 billion, little changed from a year earlier.
Like many newspaper publishers, McLean, Virginia-based Gannett has struggled with falling ad revenue as more Americans, estimated at 86 percent, get news online.
Gannett said digital advertising is a $200 billion business, up nearly eightfold since 2009, but newspaper ad revenue fell nearly 70 percent over that time. Print circulation at Gannett-owned newspapers fell nearly 20 percent in 2020 and 2021, the company said.
The case is Gannett Co. v Google LLC et al, US District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 23-05177.
Gannett sues Google, alleges online ad monopoly
https://arab.news/j8fqr
Gannett sues Google, alleges online ad monopoly
- Gannett claims Google’s control over tools for buying and selling online ads leaves publishers with 'dramatically less revenue'
Saudi Arabia ‘ideal partner’ in shaping next wave of intelligent age, communication minister tells WEF
- Abdullah Al-Swaha said aim was to “help the world achieve the next $100 trillion by energizing the intelligence age”
DAVOS: Saudi Arabia has accelerated efforts in “energizing the intelligent age,” making the Kingdom the world’s ideal partner in shaping the next wave of the technological age, said the minister of communication and information technology.
Speaking during a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Abdullah Al-Swaha said the aim was to “help the world achieve the next $100 trillion by energizing the intelligence age.”
He said the Kingdom was expanding global partnerships for the benefit of humanity and highlighted both local and international achievements.
“We believe the more prosperous the Kingdom, the Middle East, is, the more prosperous the world is. And it is not a surprise that we fuel 50 percent of the digital economy in the kingdom or the region,” he told the audience. He added the Kingdom fueled three times the tech force of its neighbors and, as a result, 50 percent of venture capital funding.
Al-Swaha said Saudi Arabia was focused both on artificial intelligence acceleration and adoption. At home, he said, the Kingdom was doubling the use of agentic AI in the public and private sector to increase worker productivity tenfold. He also cited the world’s first fully robotic heart transplant, which was conducted in Saudi Arabia.
“If we double down on talent, technology, and build trust with partners, we can achieve success,” he said. “And we are following the same blueprint for the intelligence age.”
He said the Kingdom aimed to be a “testbed” for innovators and investors. Rapid technological adoption and investment have boosted Saudi Arabia’s non-oil economy, with non-oil activities accounting for 56 percent of GDP and surpassing $1.2 trillion in 2025, ahead of the Vision 2030 target.
In terms of adoption, Al-Swaha said the Kingdom had introduced the Arabic-language AI model, Allam, to be adopted across Adobe product series. It has also partnered with Qualcomm to bring the first hybrid AI laptop and endpoints to the world.
“These are true testimonies that the kingdom is not going local or regional; we are going global,” he said.
