According to the Wall Street Journal, the complaint alleges that “Google pocketed the difference between what it told publishers and advertisers that an ad cost and used the pool of money to manipulate future auctions to expand its digital monopoly”. The documents further cite internal messages in which Google employees said it was like they were using “insider information” to grow the business.

The Journal reported the lawsuit also claims executives at both Facebook, which recently rebranded as Meta, and Google signed off on a deal to allegedly assure that Facebook would bid on, and win, a certain percentage of ads.