For years, Google had a secret program that used data from past bids in the company’s digital ad exchange to allegedly give its own ad-buying system an advantage over competitors, according to court documents filed in an antitrust case in Texas.
The program, known as “Project Bernanke,” was not disclosed to publishers selling ads through Google’s ad-purchasing systems. It generated hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for the company annually, the documents show. In its lawsuit, Texas alleges that the project gave Google, a division of Alphabet Inc., an unfair competitive advantage over rivals.
The documents filed this week were part of Google’s initial response to the Texas-led antitrust lawsuit, filed in December, accusing the search company of having a monopoly on digital ads that both competitors and publishers use in the ad industry. This week’s filing, viewed by The Wall Street Journal, was not edited correctly when it was uploaded to the court’s public reel. A federal judge had Google reseal it.
Some of the unedited content of the document was previously disclosed by MLex, an antitrust-focused news outlet.
The document sheds more light on the state’s case against Google, along with the search company’s defense.