Other Google advertising partners did not reach such a good deal, according to partners who spoke with the newspaper. The Texas complaint effectively accused Google of guaranteeing a certain number of ad wins for Facebook and putting rivals at a disadvantage.
Facebook and Google have already rejected the notions of anti-competitive Jedi Blue. A Facebook spokesman said that deals like this with Google “help to increase competition” in ad bidding and that the arguments to the contrary are “unfounded”. A Google spokesman, however, said the Texas lawsuit “misrepresents” the business and other aspects of its advertising business. The search company published a blog post outlining its objections.
This will not necessarily affect regulators, however, and there are even suggestions that the two tech giants were aware of the potential for analysis. A clause in the agreement required the two to “cooperate and help” if there was an investigation into their practices, and the agreement mentioned “antitrust” at least 20 times. Don’t be surprised if Texas, other states and the DOJ use Jedi Blue to justify regulatory action against Facebook and Google, no matter how much companies believe they are right.