If Google loses the recent antitrust lawsuits that have been filed against the search engine giant, Google may decrease its ad placement frequency, advertisers may lose access to scalable advertising, while on the other hand, there may be new digital marketing opportunities, better user experiences, and more affordable advertising. What are the antitrust lawsuits about, and what could the outcome of the lawsuits mean for marketers?
The State Antitrust Lawsuits
The state antitrust lawsuits, led by eight states (Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Utah), were filed by 38 attorneys general on Dec. 17 of 2020, and allege that Googleâs search results favor its own services over those of rival (vertical) search engines such as Yelp and Angieâs List, and claim that this has harmed those competitors, because if users are not able to find them through Google, they may be unable to find them in general. The states say that Google has made cha