Atlantic mag sues Google, accusing tech giant of rigging digital ad market

The Atlantic has filed suit against Google — accusing the tech giant of monopolizing the digital advertising market in a legal battle that pits a Silicon Valley colossus against one of the oldest magazines in the country.The mag alleged that Google and its parent Alphabet have rigged the digital market through secret auction schemes, an antitrust violation known as “tying” and deceptive practices that siphoned millions in revenue from publishers — helping cement the company’s monopoly over the online ad economy.“These allegations are meritless,” a Google spokesperson told The Post.“Advertisers and publishers have many choices and when they choose Google’s ad tech tools it’s because they are effective, affordable and easy to use.”The 94-page complaint was filed in Manhattan federal court.The magazine claims Google used its dominance over ad servers and ad exchanges to force publishers into its ecosystem, suppress competition and drive down the prices paid for online advertising.At the heart of the case is an allegation of illegal “tying,” an antitrust violation in which a company uses dominance in one must-have product to force customers to take a second product they might not otherwise choose.The Atlantic claims Google conditioned access to its powerful AdX ad exchange — the marketplace publishers need to reach major advertisers — on mandatory use of Google’s own ad server, DFP, effectively leaving publishers with no practical alternative and shutting rival ad-tech firms out of the market.The complaint accuses Google of running what it calls a “sophisticated, anticompetitive, and deceptive scheme for well over a decade,” comparing the company’s conduct in digital ad auctions to insider trading on Wall Street.According to the filing, Google leveraged its control of the publisher ad server to “trade on inside information and [buy] The Atlantic’s inventory on the cheap,” giving its own exchange an unfair edge in billions of ...