Antitrust lawsuits expose Google signing an allegedly illegal advertising deal with Facebook executives

The monopoly lawsuit, led by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in 2020, finally revealed more details on Friday. An unedited new court filing reveals that the CEOs of Facebook and Google had signed a special deal to give the social networking giant an edge in the search giant's online advertising bid.

On Friday, the Wall Street Journal and Politico reported on new details about the deal, which had previously reported on some of the advertising deals code-named "Jedi Blue."

But newly opened court documents show that the CEOs of the two companies — Sundar Pichai and Mark Zuckerberg — had personally approved the advertising deal.

The initial lawsuit alleges that Google, a subsidiary of Alphabet, had engaged in false, deceptive or misleading behavior in its online advertising operations to thwart its competitors.

Social giant Facebook is also accused of illegally working with the search giant, one of its biggest competitors in digital advertising.

However, after filing the lawsuit, Facebook has renamed the parent company to Meta, so Meta is not listed as a defendant in this case.

Google spokesman Peter Schottenfels argued in an email that the lawsuit lacked basis and was inaccurate.

The rationale is that the company signs hundreds of agreements each year that don't require CEO approval, and this agreement is no exception, and Facebook is one of the 25+ companies participating in its ad auction program.

A Meta spokesperson also argued in an emailed statement that the business relationship was meant to allow Meta to provide more value to advertisers.

At the same time, however, Google and Facebook also face lawsuits from more than 30 print/more than 200 newspaper publishers across the United States.

The companies claim that tech giants have been unfairly manipulating the advertising market and sucking up revenue, thereby weakening their businesses.

The U.S. Department of Justice also sued Google for allegedly violating the Antitrust Act, accusing the company of monopolizing search and online advertising.

Facebook also faces a lawsuit from the Federal Trade Commission accusing the social giant of maintaining its dominance by acquiring/suppressing businesses it sees as a competitive threat.

The revelation that executives of the two giants were involved in transactions that publishers found to have harmed their businesses is further evidence that the giants have deliberately forced small publishers into bankruptcy.

David Chavern, president and CEO of the News Media Alliance, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit, said:

The newly disclosed complaint in the ad technology lawsuit is expected to reject Google's winning argument that customers are running to them for the sake of which product is 'better'.

The monopoly achieved through anti-competitive collateral transactions and market manipulation has nothing to do with so-called 'innovation'.