The U.S. Justice Department is expected to file a lawsuit against Alphabet's Google as soon as next week, kicking off a long legal slog over whether the online search and advertising company uses its outsized market power unfairly.
Google is also accused of using its popular search function to favor its products, like YouTube, as well as big advertisers, like eBay. For example, a recent search for a"Saturday Night Live" video resulted in several choices from Google's YouTube before NBC, which makes the show. Companies such as Yelp have argued they are better than Google at helping consumers find certain services but that they often appear below a box of Google recommendations, resulting in fewer clicks.
Of particular interest is"search advertising," the ads that show up under a search box if a person searches for a consumer item like"dishwasher." Google controls the sale of the space under these searches, as well as the tools to make those sales.