There are three sides to the Google antitrust story. There’s the original 242-page state-led lawsuit stuffed with allegations of monopolistic behavior, there’s Google’s recent 52-page motion to dismiss the suit – and then there’s the truth.
In this week’s Big Story, we get at the truthiness of these allegations along with the nuances of which ones Google chose to contest in its motion to scrap the case. For example, there’s an interesting back-and-forth about launch of Unified Pricing, a decision that infuriated publishers when it was announced – and may or may not be grounds for an antitrust lawsuit.
If that’s not enough Google for you, Google made the news a second time in the past week when it sent FLoC to birdie heaven and unveiled the Topics API. Google plans to test the new and privacy-improved Topics API globally soon – including in Europe. (FLoC tests failed to take flight in Europe over GDPR concerns).
In this legal-packed episode, we also offer a quick brief on CPRA, which aims to take CCPA’s privacy protections up a notch. Finally, the ominously-named Banning Surveillance Advertising Act (BSAA) was introduced last week. Banning all but contextual advertising and broad geotargeting, the bill would decimate the programmatic advertising business.
But it could be the first step toward a US privacy law – and one that might not look kindly at online advertising’s use of tracking.
