Daily Mail Owner files an antitrust lawsuit against Google, citing reality coverage

The Daily Mail’s concerns stem in part from its assessment that its coverage of the UK royal family in 2021 has been reduced in Google search results, a spokesman for the publisher said.

In a statement, a Google spokeswoman denied the allegations in the lawsuit. “The Daily Mail’s statements are completely inaccurate. Use of our advertising technology tools has no effect on the ranking of a publisher’s website in Google Search. More generally, we compete in a crowded and crowded advertising technology space, where publishers have and exercise a variety of options, ”the statement said.

Post executives complain privately about Google’s domain in search and advertising, but few make themselves public with their complaints. In January, West Virginia’s parent company Charleston Gazette-Mail filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google and Facebook Inc. Several small publishers filed lawsuits against these two technology companies on Monday, citing an agreement between them called “Jedi Blue.”

Separately, Google faces antitrust lawsuits filed by the U.S. Department of Justice and attorneys general in several states. The company has denied abusing its market power and has said the advertising technology market is competitive.

The UK-based Daily Mail, known for celebrity and popular culture news, has built one of the most read websites in the world, with 75 million unique monthly visitors to the U.S., according to the lawsuit, seeking unspecified damages . The lawsuit also calls on Google to stop its alleged misconduct and offer transparency to its news search algorithm.

Publishers have a complicated relationship with Google. The search engine technology company is a major source of web traffic for many sites and most of the industry uses Google software to sell advertising space in ad exchanges. But Google also competes with publishers for online advertising dollars and provides tools to ad buyers. Google had a nearly 29% share of the U.S. digital ad market by 2020, according to research firm eMarketer.

In the lawsuit filed by the owner of Mail, Associated Newspapers Ltd., and its U.S. unit, Mail Media Inc., the publisher alleges that Google linked its search engine to its sales platform. ads to pressure publishers, abusing their market power.

In 2019, Google punished the Daily Mail in its search results because the publisher had set up online ad sales in a way that alienated its business from Google in many cases, according to the complaint. Google later modified its technology to counteract this tactic and restored normal Daily Mail search performance, according to the lawsuit.

More recently, Daily Mail executives have been disappointed that the site’s royal family coverage has not featured prominently in keyword search results such as “Meghan and Harry,” “Piers Morgan” and “Prince Philip.” , the spokesman for the said editor.

The lawsuit alleges that Google has given its online exchange special advantages over rivals in ad space auctions. He cited the “Bernanke Project,” a secret program referred to in a Texas lawsuit against Google that allegedly allowed the company to know the bidding behavior of competitors. Google has acknowledged the existence of the program, but has denied it was inappropriate, saying rivals have used comparable techniques.

The Daily Mail lawsuit also alleges that Google’s plan to phase out “cookies” (bits of code used to track users on the web) in its Chrome web browser will make it difficult to target ads to advertisers. unless they buy through Google’s systems. Google has said it is making changes to protect users’ privacy.

While they care about Google, many publishers want to license news to the tech giant for a fee. Google has begun licensing news for its Google News Showcase product. Daily Mail has not accepted money from News Showcase, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Write to Patience Haggin at [email protected]