By: City AM
April 12, 2021
Google has been accused of insider trading in the digital advertising market through its use of a secret programme that allegedly gave it an unfair advantage over rivals.
Court documents filed in a Texas lawsuit state the scheme, dubbed Project Bernanke, used access to data about past bids in Google’s advertising exchange to give it the upper hand on competitors.
Lawyers allege that this amounted to anti-competitive behaviour and insider trading in the digital ads market.
The documents, seen by the Wall Street Journal, formed part of Google’s initial response to an antitrust lawsuit over its dominant position in the market.
The filing was not properly redacted when it was first uploaded online. It has since been reposted with references to Project Bernanke removed.