Rumble CEO Chris Pavlovski announced plans to release a video uncovered by his legal team, claiming it will demonstrate Google’s “true colors.”
Google’s true colors will be demonstrated when I decide to reveal a public video our legal team uncovered from the deep depths of the internet. ⏳
— Chris Pavlovski (@chrispavlovski) May 14, 2024
This announcement comes as Rumble filed a lawsuit against Google, alleging anticompetitive practices in its digital advertising products and seeking damages exceeding $1 billion. The lawsuit claims that Google has monopolized the ad stack by acquiring companies throughout the advertising chain and simultaneously representing both ad buyers and sellers while running the exchange that connects these parties.
Rumble also accused Google of maintaining its monopoly through an agreement with Meta’s Facebook, allegedly preventing Facebook from offering alternatives to Google’s ad tech ecosystem. Google has denied Rumble’s allegations, stating they are “simply wrong” and asserting that Rumble uses “dozens” of competing ad services in addition to Google’s ad manager.
A Google spokesperson responded, “We’ll show the court how our advertising products benefit publishers and help them fund their content online,” emphasizing that publishers retain a significant majority of the revenue when using Google tools.
Rumble filed the suit late on Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. This marks the second lawsuit Rumble has brought against Google; the first, filed in 2021, accused Google of favoring its own video-sharing platform, YouTube, in search results.
The U.S. Justice Department has also filed an advertising lawsuit against Google, accusing the company of abusing its dominance in the digital advertising business and suggesting that Google should be required to sell its ad manager suite.