Google-owner Alphabet is set to face a lawsuit from the US Justice Department over its dominance in the digital advertising market.

According to Bloomberg, the case is expected to be filed in federal court before 6 February. It would represent the Justice Department’s second case against Google, and the fifth major case in the US challenging Google’s business practices. The first Justice Department lawsuit, filed in 2020, is oriented on the company’s monopoly in search and is scheduled for trial in September.

This lawsuit in particular will target Google’s ad business which makes up around 80% of its revenue – predicted to be $73.8 billion in US digital ad revenue in 2023. It comes after advertisers and web publishers complained that Google has been historically opaque over where ad dollars go and the divide between publishers and the search giant.

Google is the largest player in the $626.86 billion global digital ad market, though its share of the market has dropped from 36.7 per cent in 2016 to 28.8 per cent in 2022, according to Insider Intelligence.

Google meanwhile has argued that the online advertising space is crowded and that it it is competitive with the likes of Facebook parent company Meta and US telcos such as AT&T and Comcast.

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