Conservative platform Rumble sues Google over its practices in the digital ad business

A right-leaning video platform is ready to rumble in a court of law. Rumble, the platform that counts Tucker Carlson and Barstool Sports among its users, has filed a suit against Google.

In the suit, Rumble claims that Google has cost it billions by maintaining a monopoly in the digital ad business. According to Axios, Rumble was a Google Ads client before launching its own ad center in 2022. The suit claims that Rumble missed out on “billions” in revenue due to Google’s anti-competitive practices.

“Google exploits significant conflicts of interest that stem from its multiple roles in this electronically traded marketplace,” reads the complaint. “As a result, it is able to pocket a supra-competitive portion of every advertising dollar that passes through the Ad Tech markets it controls, ad-revenue that rightly should have passed through to publishers like Rumble and its content creators.”

The suit, which was filed in the Northern District of California, joins a previous Rumble lawsuit that targets Google’s video hub YouTube. That case (which was filed in the same district as the ad-focused suit) argues that YouTube content is unlawfully favored in Google search results. Google attempted to get the first suit thrown out, but a judge ruled in Rumble’s favor

and allowed litigation to continue.

Rumble had a breakout year in 2021, when it gained Donald Trump as a high-profile user. Months later, Rumble capitalized on its momentum by announcing content deals with notable right-leaning voices like Glenn Greenwald and Tulsi Gabbard. Two years later, Rumble added a show hosted by two of the biggest creators on the planet. Streaming stars Kai Cenat and iShowSpeed teamed up for the Rumble original The Kai N’ Speed Show.

The U.S. Department of Justice is already looking into Google’s alleged monopoly in its ad business. When that investigation was announced, Google denied that it was stifling competition in the ad space, and it issued a similar denial in response to Rumble’s latest bit of legal aggression.

“These claims are simply wrong. Platforms like Rumble have many options to choose from when it comes to using advertising technology to monetize,” reads a statement provided by a Google spokesperson. “We’ll show the court how our advertising products benefit publishers and help them fund their content online.”