A West Virginia news editor filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google and Facebook, which together receive about half of all digital advertising dollars in the United States and face antitrust charges from federal and state officials.
The company, HD Media, has several newspapers in the state, including the Herald-Dispatch in Huntington and the Charleston Gazette-Mail.
HD Media claims that Google has monopolized the online ad market so much that it “threatens the extinction of local newspapers across the country”. The lawsuit also alleges that Google and Facebook conspired to promote their domain with a secret deal, referring to a lawsuit filed by 10 Republican attorney generals in December.
The company does not specify the impact on its business of the behavior of Facebook and Google, and says that it has impaired its ability to “effectively monetize its content” because Google is able to take on a non-competitive portion of the news publisher’s ad revenue. . A company lawyer declined to speak openly.
It is the first antitrust lawsuit against a technology platform focused on publishing news, said David Chavern, head of the News Media Alliance news group. He said the group was not involved in the process.
HD Media filed a lawsuit in the federal court in West Virginia and requested a jury trial. He asked for unspecified damages and for the court to stop Google and Facebook from the uncompetitive conduct it is alleging.
The newspaper industry is in a long decline, with large job losses and publications becoming scarcer and even disappearing. Online ad revenues failed to make up for losses with print ads.
Federal and state antitrust authorities have sued Google and Facebook in recent months. The Justice Department alleges that Google abuses its domain in online search and advertising.
Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Google referred a reporter to a blog post published in mid-January by its director of economic policy, Adam Cohen, who defends Google’s business against antitrust charges brought by the Texas attorney general in December.