Google has operated a secret program for years that used data from previous offers in the company’s digital advertising exchange to give its own ad-buying system an edge over competitors, according to Texas court antitrust lawsuits. .
The program, known as the “Bernanke Project,” was not disclosed to publishers who sold ads through Google’s ad purchasing systems. It has generated revenue of hundreds of millions of dollars annually for the company, the documents show. In its lawsuit, Texas claims that the project gave Google, a unit of Alphabet Inc., an unfair competitive advantage over rivals.
Documents filed this week were part of Google’s initial response to the Texas-led antitrust lawsuit filed in December and accused the search company of operating a digital advertising monopoly that harmed both competitors in the advertising industry and publishers. The week’s submission, viewed by The Wall Street Journal, was not worded correctly when it was uploaded to the court’s public file. A federal judge allowed Google to replant it under seal.
Some of the unwritten content of the document was previously revealed by MLex, an antitrust-focused news center.
The document sheds further light on the state’s case against Google, along with the search company’s defense.