Adtech company PubMatic has filed a lawsuit against Google, accusing the search giant of illegally monopolizing the digital advertising market. The company is seeking billions of dollars in damages, according to Bloomberg.
The lawsuit is the second from an ad exchange since a federal judge ruled in April that Google had illegally monopolized ad exchanges and ad servers. The court is scheduled to hold another trial this month to decide whether Google should be forced to sell parts of its advertising business.
PubMatic CEO Rajeev Goel said the case is about more than money, stressing that it aims to ensure fairness in online advertising.
“It felt like for many years no matter how well we innovated there was a barrier holding us back,” Goel told Bloomberg. “That barrier wasn’t the limits of our technology. It was Google’s illegal monopoly. Every time we adapted or innovated, Google found new ways to stack the deck.”
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PubMatic, which helps websites sell advertising, competes directly with Google Ad Manager (formerly DoubleClick). During Google’s antitrust trial last year, testimony revealed that Google had considered buying PubMatic in 2011 but instead acquired Admeld, another adtech provider.
