Suit Says Google, Facebook Bosses Made Illegal Deal To Dominate Ad Market – NDTV.com

The antitrust suit is one of three engaging Google on different fronts.San Francisco: Top bosses of Google and Facebook were directly involved in approving an allegedly illegal 2018 deal to cement their dominance of the online advertising market, US court documents revealed Friday.The records, part of an anti-trust lawsuit by a coalition of US states targeting Google, make serious allegations against Big Tech giants long accused of holding monopolies.According to the states’ accusations, the online search colossus sought to oust competition by manipulating ad auctions — the ultra-sophisticated system that determines which ads appear on web pages based on the anonymized profiles of internet users.The legal documents filed in a New York court clearly refer to Sundar Pichai, chief of Google’s parent firm Alphabet, as well as Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg and CEO Mark Zuckerberg — even if their names were redacted.”Google CEO Sundar Pichai also personally signed off on the terms of the deal,” the suit said.The documents note that the economic terms were emailed to Facebook’s CEO and he was advised: “‘We’re nearly ready to sign and need your approval to move forward.'”Google did not respond to a request for comment Friday, but has adamantly denied manipulating the…
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