HD Media Company this week filed a claim requesting a federal court to resolve whether the two Silicon Valley firms had violated antitrust laws.
The case claims Google had illegally exercised monopoly power of the digital advertising market, which has stopped newspapers from playing in the market and losing their primary source of revenue.
It also claims that Google and Facebook had “unlawfully conspired to engage in anticompetitive conduct,” through an alleged secret deal aliased “Jedi Blue.” Details of the alleged contract were first reported when 10 state attorneys general accused Google of multiple violations of federal and state antitrust and consumer protection laws.
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According to a redacted version of the claim filed in December, Facebook announced in 2017 that it would seek a new method of selling online advertising called “header bidding,” which would act as a warning of competition for Google. The claim suggested Facebook ultimately “curtailed its involvement” with the project after Google gave Facebook “information, speed, and other advantages in the [redacted] auctions that Google runs for publishers’ mobile app advertising inventory each month in the United States.”
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The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, who both say they’ve reviewed an unredacted version of the complaint, reported the alleged secret deal cited in the lawsuit was code-named “Jedi Blue” by Google.
HD Media’s lawsuit claims that in the wake of Google and Facebook’s alleged anticompetitive and monopolistic practices, newspapers in West Virginia and across the country are facing “a very real existential threat to their existence.”
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“Without redress, these newspapers, and hence the citizens of West Virginia, may well end up in the ‘news desert,'” the lawsuit states.
It claims that Google’s monopoly has formed an uneven playing field to compete for online advertising revenue. It says Google had mixed itself through various mergers and assets to “enable dominion over all sellers, buyers, and middlemen in the marketplace.”
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“The freedom of the press is not at stake; the press itself is at stake,” the filing states.
“As a result of falling revenues, newspapers are steadily losing the ability to financially support their newsrooms, which are costly to maintain but provide immense value to their communities. A robust local newsroom requires the financial freedom to support in-depth, sometimes years-long reporting, as well as the ability to hire and retain journalists with expertise in fundamentally local issues, such as coverage of state government.”
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Google and Facebook did not immediately respond to The Epoch Times’ request for comment.
HD media is seeking an application that declares Google and Facebook’s actions disrupted the law and blocks them from further engaging in such demeanor. It also seeks damages for any injury caused.
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