American judge says Google (GOOGL.US) may face claims from some advertisers for anti-competition practices.

According to foreign media reports, a US judge ruled last Friday that Alphabet (GOOGL.US)'s Google should face a collective lawsuit brought by advertisers accusing Google of monopolizing the ad exchange market. However, US District Judge Kevin Castel rejected some other antitrust lawsuit requests, including those targeting the ad buying tools used by large advertisers. Castel is currently reviewing several cases against Google. His ruling dismissed many lawsuit requests but allowed at least one significant lawsuit request to proceed. The judge pointed out that advertisers "did not reasonably allege antitrust standing in the market for ad buying tools used by large advertisers, but they did reasonably allege harm in the ad exchange market and the market for ad buying tools used by small advertisers due to anti-competitive conduct." Castel added that Gannett (GCI), the publisher of USA Today, could prove in another case that Google fraudulently concealed the anti-competitive effects of certain technologies. The report stated that Gannett claimed it sold some ad space directly to advertisers, but Google still auctioned off these inventories on its ad exchange platform to accumulate transaction fees and profit. Furthermore, the judge also made rulings in several other cases in this nationwide lawsuit. The US Justice Department filed a lawsuit against Google in January 2023, accusing the company of abusing its dominant position in the digital advertising field. The agency has requested the divestiture of Google's ad manager suite, including Google's ad exchange platform AdX. It is understood that websites can use Google Ad Manager to offer ad space for sale. In addition, Google Ad Manager can also act as a marketplace for matching advertisers and these publishers automatically. Advertisers and website publishers claim that Google is not transparent in where ad fees go, specifically regarding how much of the fees go to publishers and how much goes to Google.