BUSINESS

Google Misled Publishers and Advertisers, Unredacted

Lawsuit Alleges
Details show Google employees fretting its ad tech auctions were ‘untruthful’ and based in ‘insider
information’

Google said a lawsuit by state attorneys general was ‘full of inaccuracies and lacks legal merit.’
PHOTO: DAVID PAUL MORRIS/BLOOMBERG NEWS

By
Tripp Mickle and Keach Hagey
Updated Jan. 14, 2022 4:50 pm ET

Listen to article (2 minutes)

Google misled publishers and advertisers for years about the pricing and processes of its ad
auctions, creating secret programs that deflated sales for some companies while increasing
prices for buyers, according to newly unredacted allegations and details in a lawsuit by state
attorneys general.

Meanwhile, Google pocketed the difference between what it told publishers and advertisers
that an ad cost and used the pool of money to manipulate future auctions to expand its
digital monopoly, the newly unredacted complaint alleges. The documents cite internal
correspondence in which Google employees said some of these practices amounted to
growing its business through “insider information.”

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