Newspapers file suits against Google, Facebook

Facebook and Google are facing a parade of lawsuits from newspaper companies, along with legislative and Department of Justice pressure.

• Publishers of 125 newspapers in 11 states filed or announced suits against Google and Facebook April 19, claiming the tech giants have unlawfully monopolized the digital advertising market and engaged in an illegal secretive deal, nicknamed “Jedi Blue,” to throttle competition.

Fourteen complaints were filed or announced by publishers from Texas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Mississippi, New Jersey, Indiana, Missouri, Maryland and Delaware, said a press release from West Virginia-based Fitzsimmons Law Firm (see complaints). 

Publishers filing suit: AIM Media, Brown County Publishing Company and Multi Media Channels Clarksburg Publishing Company, d.b.a. WV News; Coastal Point; Eagle Printing Company; Ecent Corporation; Emmerich Newspapers; Flag Publications; Gale Force Media and Journal Inc.

In addition, WKTimes and Pinnacle Communications have announced their intention to file similar suits.

• U.K.-based Associated Newspapers, which publishes the online newspaper MailOnline, branded as the Daily Mail in the U.S., has also filed suit against Google, the Guardian reported.

• In January 2021 an antitrust suit against Google and Facebook was filed by HD Media, a West Virginia-based company that publishes the Charleston Gazette-Mail and the Herald-Dispatch (Huntington).   

• Those actions follow government-led suits. In December, a coalition of 38 states filed suit against Google, with a focus on Google’s search engine (see complaint). Colorado’s Democratic Attorney General Phil Weiser and Nebraska’s Republican Attorney General Doug Peterson led that effort. That same month, ten states, in an effort led by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, filed suit against Google (see complaint, commentary). The U.S. Department of Justice and eleven states filed an antitrust suit against Google in October (see press release, complaint). More states joined the suit later.

• Google and Facebook denied the “Jedi Blue” allegations in the government and HD Media suits, The Wall Street Journal reported. 

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