Gannett Co Inc (NYSE:GCI), America’s largest newspaper chain and the publisher behind USA Today and over 200 daily newspapers, has gone head to head with tech giant Google in a legal battle, according to Reuters. In a complaint lodged at a federal court in Manhattan, Gannett accused Google of stepping on antitrust laws by aiming to corner the market for online advertising. The root of the issue? Gannett alleges that media entities are suffering as Google and its parent company, Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL), monopolize the ad buying and selling tools, pressuring publishers to allocate more ad space to Google at subpar prices. This situation is accused of yielding less revenue for both publishers and Google’s ad-tech competitors while Google rakes in substantial monopoly profits.
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This suit comes on the back of a similar one filed by the U.S. Department of Justice against Google five months prior concerning the tech firm’s ad tech. Only a week ago, the European Union joined the fray with its own case, hinting at the potential requirement for Google to offload some of its ad tech. The lawsuit points to a burgeoning $200 billion online digital ad industry in the U.S., which grew nearly eightfold since 2009, while newspaper ad revenues have plummeted nearly 70% during the same period.
A look at the past five years for GCI stock highlights the struggle that it has faced as it tries to compete with Google. Indeed, shares have plunged over 87% during this timeframe.
