Google, Facebook CEO's Conspired In Online Advertisement Sales: Lawsuit Reveals
Google, Facebook CEOs are involved in online advertising sales to maneuver others led to bring a new lawsuit against them.
As per the lawsuit, the chief operating officer of Facebook Sheryl Sandberg was “Explicit that this is a big deal strategically.”
Highlighted Facts
- Google has been accused by a lawsuit of “anticompetitive conduct.”
- The Texas Attorney General is leading the lawsuit, his name is Ken Paxton.
- The complaint that has been registered against the two is talking about the agreement, which was signed in 2018 by both the giant tech companies.
Read More: Google faces Inquiry Of Antitrust In India, After News Publishers Complain
As per the lawsuit, both the giant big tech companies were involved in an agreement that was signed in 2018. The lawsuit reveals the information of the collusion of both the companies and in an online advertisement sale having the manipulation nature by itself. During the deal, both the companies were aware of the nature of the deal.
In December 2021 the authentic lawsuit was filed in which the accusations were imposed on Google of “anti-competitive conduct” and teaming up with the social networking giant ‘Facebook’.
The unredacted version of the lawsuit shows the involvement of Google’s Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in approving the deal and after that Facebook changed its name to ‘Meta’ from ‘Facebook’.
Lawsuit states
It revealed a lot of statements regarding the allegations. When the two sides hammered the terms of the agreement “The team sent an email addressed directly to CEO,” named as Zuckerberg told in the lawsuit.
The complaint also includes “We were nearly ready to sign and need your approval to move forward,” which was written in the email. As per the complaint, Zuckerberg wanted to meet with Sandberg and another executive before making a decision.
Google’s Spokesperson said about the lawsuit “Full of Inaccuracies and lacks legal merit.”
The complaint also revealed that in September 2018, both the companies signed a deal of agreement by Sandberg who was once the head of Google’s ad business, and Pichai personally signed the deal.
Chris Sgro, Meta’s Spokesperson said on Friday, that the company’s ad bidding agreement with Google and other similar agreements has “raised the competition in the ad placement.”
Also, added
“These business relationships enable Meta to deliver more value to advertisers while fairly compensating publishers, resulting in better outcomes for all,” said Sgro.
Schottenfels of Google’s said about the lawsuit allegations that Pichai approved the deal with Facebook “isn’t accurate.”
Also added “We sign hundreds of agreements every year that do not require CEO approval, and this was no different,” also said that “The agreement was never the secret.”
The lawsuit is being led by the Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and was joined by the Attorney General of Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Utah.
