Google sued by adtech company PubMatic; company’s Indian-origin CEO says: Google’s illegal monopoly held us back

US-based advertising exchange PubMatic has filed a lawsuit against Google, a report claims. The company has reportedly accused the Alphabet-owned tech giant of illegally monopolising the ad technology market and seeking billions of dollars in damages. This is the second time an ad exchange has sued Google since a federal judge ruled in April that the company had illegally monopolised ad exchanges and ad servers. A separate trial is scheduled for this month to determine whether Google should be forced to sell off parts of its advertising business due to its alleged illegal conduct. After filing the lawsuit, PubMatic CEO Rajeev Goel stated that the lawsuit is not just about money but about ensuring the proper functioning of online advertising markets.

What PubMatic CEO Rajeev Goel said about suing Google

In a statement to Bloomberg, Goel said, “It felt like for many years, no matter how well we innovated, there was a barrier holding us back. That barrier wasn’t the limit of our technology. It was Google’s illegal monopoly. Every time we adapted or innovated, Google found new ways to stack the deck.”PubMatic partners with websites to sell advertising, positioning itself as a competitor to Google Ad Manager (formerly DoubleClick). In testimony during Google’s antitrust trial last year, it was revealed that Google had considered acquiring PubMatic in 2011 but ultimately chose to buy the ad technology company AdMeld instead.

Last week, European Union (EU) regulators fined Google €2.95 billion ($3.5 billion) for violating competition rules by favouring its own digital advertising services, marking the company’s fourth antitrust penalty in the EU. The European Commission also directed Google to end its self-preferencing practices and address potential conflicts of interest in the ad technology supply chain. Google called the decision “wrong” and announced plans to appeal, stating that the fine and required changes could negatively affect thousands of European businesses.Responding to the EU's fine on Google, US President Donald Trump criticised the decision as “unfair” and warned of potential retaliatory tariffs if the penalty is not withdrawn. On Truth Social, he stated that the €3.5 billion fine effectively takes money away from American investments and jobs, calling the move discriminatory against US companies. His comments come shortly after hosting a White House dinner with tech CEOs, including Google CEO Sundar Pichai, where Trump had congratulated Pichai on Google’s recent legal victory following a landmark antitrust ruling.