Alphabet’s Google must face advertisers’ proposed class action lawsuit claiming that it monopolizes the ad exchange market, a U.S. judge ruled on Friday.
But U.S. District Judge Kevin Castel dismissed some other antitrust claims, including those focused on ad-buying tools used by large advertisers
The advertisers, he wrote, “have not plausibly alleged antitrust standing in the markets for ad-buying tools used by large advertisers, but they plausibly allege antitrust standing as to injuries they purportedly suffered from anti-competitive practices in the ad-exchange market and the market for small advertisers’ buying tools.”
Castel also said Gannett, the largest U.S. newspaper chain and publisher of USA Today, could try in a separate case to prove that Google fraudulently concealed anticompetitive effects of some technology. Gannett alleged that it sold some of its ad space directly to advertisers, but Google still made the inventory available for auction on its ad exchange in order to accrue transaction fees for its own benefit.
Google and Gannett did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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