Adtech platform Teads has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google, alleging that the company continues to utilize anti-competitive auction mechanics like 'Last Look' and 'Project Bernanke' to suppress rival ad exchanges. The lawsuit claims Google's tying of its ad server to the AdX exchange resulted in the loss of nearly 6.9 trillion impressions for competitors between 2017 and 2023.
The lawsuit challenges Google’s narrative that it transitioned to a transparent, first-price auction model in 2019. By alleging that legacy rigging schemes were simply rebranded rather than removed, Teads signals that the adtech industry’s supply side is no longer satisfied with internal policy updates and is seeking judicial enforcement of auction neutrality. This litigation pressure arrives as the streaming industry increasingly integrates with programmatic stacks via Google TV and YouTube. If successful, the suit could force a technical decoupling of Google’s buy-side and sell-side tools, fundamentally altering how premium video inventory is valued and cleared. Watch for the discovery phase to potentially reveal updated internal documentation regarding current AdX auction logic.
The legal pressure on Google’s adtech stack follows a pivotal April 2025 federal court ruling which found that Google violated the Sherman Act to maintain its dominance in digital advertising. Per The Wall Street Journal in May 2025, that decision catalyzed a wave of private litigation from independent adtech firms seeking to recover lost revenue from the 2010s. This surge in private suits coincides with the Department of Justice's own pursuit of structural remedies, which Bloomberg reported in June 2025 could include the forced divestiture of Google’s ad manager business. The Teads filing specifically mirrors claims made by the DOJ regarding 'Project Bernanke,' a mechanism that allegedly used historical data to adjust bids in a way that disadvantaged rival exchanges while boosting Google’s own margins.
Simultaneously, the competitive landscape for SSPs is tightening as ad spend shifts toward Connected TV (CTV). According to eMarketer data from July 2026, programmatic CTV spending now accounts for over 15% of total digital ad budgets, heightening the stakes for independent platforms like Teads and Magnite that are fighting for fair access to inventory on platforms like Google TV. Despite the litigation, the interoperability of the ecosystem requires awkward partnerships; Teads' own February 2026 integration with Google TV highlights the difficulty SSPs face in bypassing the dominant operating systems. Furthermore, per Reuters in July 2026, Google’s recent decision to reverse its plan to deprecate third-party cookies in Chrome has redirected the industry's focus toward auction transparency and away from purely privacy-based technological shifts.
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