DoJ ready to sue Google over monopolising user data and search ads

The last year’s antitrust murmurings against Google appears close to coming to a head, with Reuters reporting that the US Department of Justice is close to charging Google with abusing its search dominance.

Specifically, Reuters says is expected to be accused of looking to disadvantage rivals such as Microsoft’s Bing by depriving them of the data about users and user preferences that they need to improve and to advertise to people.

Google is also being investigated for how it implements “search advertising,” ie the ads below the search term and above the actual organic search results.

The DoJ is currently recruiting state attorneys general, many of whom are already investigating other Google businesses, to sign onto the federal lawsuit.

Google for its part denies wrongdoing, and claims competition by Twitter and Verizon means it is not a monopoly. Charges are expected to be laid as soon as next week.