Yolizia-based review site blasts Google following DOJ lawsuit

In a statement to Fox News Digital, the company that publishes crowd-sourced reviews on businesses called Yelp blasted Google Wednesday for alleged monopolistic tendencies, following the Department of Justice suing the tech giant for monopolizing digital advertising technologies. The Department of Justice joined a lawsuit filed by multiple states on Tuesday alleging that Google artificially exerted an unfair dominance over the online ad space.

Google's anticompetitive behavior has led to barriers to entry to artificially high levels, forced key competitors to abandon the market for ad tech tools, dissuading potential competitors from joining the market, and left Google's few remaining competitors marginalized and unfairly disadvantaged, DOJ and the eight states alleged.

Luther Lowe, Senior Vice President of Public Policy at Yelp, told Fox News Digital that Google's anti-competitive behavior only serves to protect their monopoly. The consumer is the primary victim of Google's conduct, and we need to keep the pressure on our leaders to advance bipartisan legislative efforts that would stop anti-competitive behavior that serves to protect monopolies, Lowe said. Google is attempting to stop entrepreneurial activity and fosters innovation and job growth because of its self-preferencing in the local search market. Fox News Digital reached out for comment after reaching out for comment.

Google said that the DOJ lawsuit tries to rewrite history at the cost of publishers, advertisers and internet users. The lawsuit was brought by the DOJ, which was aimed at Google. In 2020, the DOJ filed a lawsuit against Google, which held the top spot in digital advertising, accounting for nearly 30% of the industry last year.

There are companies like TripAdvisor, Expedia and Yelp that have previously been vocal about being affected by Google's practices in the marketplace.

The lawsuit states that website creators earn less, and advertisers pay more than they would in a market where unfettered competitive pressure could discipline prices and lead to more innovative ads tech tools that would ultimately result in higher quality and lower cost transactions for market participants.

The plaintiffs are asking the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia to order the dissolution of the Google Ad Manager suite, including its publisher ad server DFP, and its ad exchange AdX.

The lawsuit came just days after Alphabet laid off 12,000 workers from its various teams.

Digital advertising accounts for some 80% of Google's revenue, and its dominance in the space has been shrinking in recent years. It accounted for 36.7% of digital advertising in 2016 but had fallen to 28.8% in 2022, according to Reuters.

The DOJ's other lawsuit against Google is scheduled to go to trial in September.