By Kendra Barnett --> Teads, an adtech platform that helps web and mobile publishers monetize their digital content, is suing Google, claiming some anti-competitive advertising practices that hampered competition continue to this day.
In an 85-page lawsuit filed in the Southern District of New York, Teads claims that when Google tied its Google Ads ad platform to its ad exchange AdX, rival exchanges lost out on about 6.88 trillion impressions between 2017 and 2023. The complaint does not disclose the methodology behind that estimate.
“We believe Google’s practices artificially suppressed fair competition and hindered innovation,” Teads CEO David Kostman told ADWEEK.
The company is suing now with the aim of “recovering lost value and establishing a transparent, fair environment where independent ad tech providers and publishers can thrive,” he added.
Teads did not specify a figure, but its complaint requested “treble damages, punitive damages, and/or restitution in an amount to be determined at trial.”
A Google spokesperson called the allegations “meritless” in a statement to ADWEEK, adding, “Advertisers and publishers have many choices, and when they choose Google’s adtech tools it’s because they are effective, affordable, and easy to use.”
Teads is the fifth supply-side platform (SSP) to sue Google over the last year, joining a roster of litigants that includes Index Exchange , Magnite , OpenX , and PubMatic .
These lawsuits were sparked by an April 2025 landmark federal ruling that determined the tech giant used unlawful, anti-competitive practices to maintain its dominance in the open web advertising market.
These include the claim that Google forced publishers to use its ad server to access AdX’s advertiser demand, and that some of Google’s auction mechanics, called ‘First Look’ and ‘Last Look,’ boxed out rivals.
Google previously told ADWEEK these practices have since been retired. But Teads’ lawsuit claims some of these practices are ongoing.
“Google now claims that it ended Last Look in 2019,” the lawsuit says. “Its assurances are false….Google has enacted additional auction rules across publisher inventory that substantively parallel Last Look.”
The adtech company also accuses Google of continuing to operate a secretive bid-rigging scheme, originally called Project Bernanke. Google has previously said its 2019 shift to first-price auctions would create a “fair and transparent” market , but Teads claims that the same Project Bernanke scheme “continued to work” after this shift, and that “Google continues to update the Bernanke/Algorithm to this day.”
Teads wants court-ordered changes that would support healthier competition in the market and require Google to put an end to what it calls “deceptive practices.”
Teads will report its second-quarter earnings on Aug. 6. Its stock is down nearly 68% year-over-year, and the company warned the lawsuit could create more risk for investors.
“The Google lawsuit may be costly, protracted, and divert management’s attention and resources from our business operations,” the SSP said in an SEC filing this week.
Like many adtech companies, Teads and Google have a complicated relationship. Despite the lawsuit, they are also partners in other aspects. In February, the company said it was working with Google TV to extend its connected television ad inventory in the U.S. and the U.K.
Kendra Barnett is Adweek's senior tech repo…