Image: © Tada Images/Stock.adobe.com
The company claims Google has created a monopoly and that its ‘unfair’ practices have impacted Rumble’s success.
Video-sharing platform and cloud services provider Rumble is suing Google for alleged anticompetitive practices.
Rumble claims Google engages in exclusionary practices across its range of digital advertising products and that the tech giant has “monopolised the ad tech stack” by acquiring companies that represent “both ad buyers and sellers”. The platform is seeking injunctive relief and damages in excess of $1bn in court.
Rumble alleges that Google is able to “rig the system” and extract “supracompetitive fees” from transactions. The platform claims its own success has been “taxed” as a result of Google’s actions.
“Because it operates several businesses in the same arenas as Google, Rumble is in a unique position to bring such a suit against the monopolist tech giant,” the company said in a blogpost. “Unlike other companies, Rumble’s operation includes a video-sharing platform, a cloud storage service and an advertising exchange, which means that Google’s unfair practices are especially harmful to Rumble.”
A Google spokesperson told Reuters that Rumble’s claims are “wrong” and said the company will show in court how its advertising products “benefit publishers”.
This is the second lawsuit Rumble has made against Google. In 2021, Rumble claimed that the tech giant favours itself and its video platform YouTube in its search results. Rumble also claims it is unfair that Google applications such as YouTube come pre-installed on Android devices.
The second lawsuit is still in discovery. In 2022, a US judge allowed the antitrust suit to go ahead despite objections from Google.
Google is facing claims from other organisations that it operates a monopoly in terms of its search engine. The company is in the end stages of a massive antitrust trial in the US, which was previously described as the biggest since the US challenged Microsoft’s dominance in 1998. If the US trial goes against Google, it could lead to the tech giant being broken up into smaller entities and could have a significant impact on the tech sector.
Last year, a jury voted that Google has monopoly power when it comes to its Play Store in its verdict of a case launched by Epic Games.
Find out how emerging tech trends are transforming tomorrow with our new podcast, Future Human: The Series. Listen now on Spotify, on Apple or wherever you get your podcasts.
