The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Google has offered to transfer sections of its ad-tech division into a separate entity under its parent firm Alphabet in order to avoid a second antitrust lawsuit from the Department of Justice.

Such a concession would retain the ad company under Alphabet’s umbrella, but it would still signify a huge shift in the digital advertising landscape, in which Google is a massive participant on both sides of the market. While Google is best recognised for its search engine, its core business is internet advertising. For 2021, Alphabet reported $257 billion in sales.

However, it is uncertain whether the offer would satisfy the DOJ.

Jonathan Kanter, the department’s antitrust chief, has stated unequivocally that he prefers to go to court rather than accept settlements. Kanter stated in a January lecture to the New York State Bar Association Antitrust Section that published court opinions are critical to moving the law forward.

“In short, we will pursue remedies — not settlements. We cannot compromise if there is a violation of the law,” Kanter said at the time.

According to a May report from Bloomberg citing unidentified sources, Kanter has been prevented from working on Google monopoly investigations while the DOJ examines whether he should recuse himself based on his work for Google rivals. The report has not been confirmed by the DOJ. If that’s the case, his colleagues leading the investigation are inclined to respect his perspective.

According to reports quoting sources, a fresh antitrust action against Google’s ad-tech division might be filed as soon as this summer.

“We have been engaging constructively with regulators to address their concerns,” a Google spokesperson told  the media in a statement. “As we’ve said before, we have no plans to sell or exit this business, and we’re deeply committed to providing value to a wide array of publisher and advertiser partners in a highly competitive sector.”

Nonetheless, according to the Journal’s source, Google’s proposal would keep the ad-tech business under the same ownership, rather than selling it outright. The representative declined to comment on that particular subject.

Alphabet, which was founded in 2015, is effectively a holding company for Google, which generates nearly all of its revenue and earnings. Google has always marketed itself as a technological corporation, investing in numerous cutting-edge fields of technology such as internet search, phones, artificial intelligence, self-driving cars, and health technologies.

Google has spun out other businesses, such as Waymo, its self-driving car startup, and Verily, its medical sciences company, while retaining them under the Alphabet banner.

For well over a decade, Google has been the industry leader in online advertising.

It has invented and acquired a plethora of ad-tech tools over the years that enable content creators to make money through advertising and allow ad buyers to find the right audience on Google Search, YouTube, Maps, and other websites across the internet.

A new lawsuit would add to Google’s already massive legal issues stemming from its purported dominance across many industries.

In 2020, the DOJ filed its long-awaited antitrust complaint against Google, marking the first time a substantial antitrust accusation was made against Google on a federal level in its native country.

Separate cases have been filed against Google by major coalitions of state attorneys general, including one led by Texas, alleging illegal monopolisation of the online advertising market.

Outside of the United States, the corporation has been scrutinised, most notably in Europe, where it has been hit with various competition accusations, including one over its shopping price comparison service, which was upheld by a European court.

(Adapted from BBC.com)

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