WASHINGTON: Alphabet Inc's Google will be questioned about its ad business in a hearing on Tuesday, with a particular focus expected on whether it misused its dominance in online advertising to drive profits.
The tech giant made a series of purchases, including DoubleClick and AdMob, to help make it the dominant player in online advertising. Google maintains a tight grasp over each of the many steps between an advertiser looking to place an ad and a website looking to host it. Harrison, who testifies at a time when Google has few friends in Washington, will argue that the ad tech ecosystem is crowded and competitive, with Amazon.com Inc and Facebook Inc among Google's powerful rivals, and that ad tech fees have fallen.Harrison is also expected to argue that advertising is critical to supporting free websites, including Google search.