Unredacted draft version of the lawsuit filed by 10 states earlier this month details a Google-Facebook ad deal that allegedly constituted illegal price fixing
Lawmakers have called for an investigation into the tech giants' contract, dubbed ‘Jedi Blue,’ which allegedly allowed for auction rigging Tweets: @bowknowsbiz Tweets: Bowdeya Tweh / @bowknowsbiz : Details of a state attorneys general lawsuit against Google, including contract terms and company documents, shed light on the legal battle against the tech giant, which is accused of illegally fixing prices in a 2018 contract with Facebook https://www.wsj.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
This is an escalation of the case the ten states opened weeks ago, when their [[a:961310|draft complaint revealed Facebook and Google had agreed to "cooperate and assist one another" against possible antitrust action]]. The unredacted filing now puts actual contract terms and company documents behind that allegation, naming the arrangement 'Jedi Blue' and framing the 2018 agreement as price fixing rather than mere cooperation.
The arc continues past this article: by early 2022 the same state AGs were alleging Google misled publishers and advertisers for years about auction pricing, and court filings claimed Zuckerberg and Pichai personally signed off on the secret deal.
First-order effects
- Google and Facebook now face litigation built on their own internal documents, with lawmakers calling for a formal investigation into the Jedi Blue contract terms the unredacted draft exposes.
Second-order effects
- The document trail pushes the states toward broader theories — later filings allege Google deflated publisher sales while raising buyer prices across its auctions, widening the case from one 2018 deal to years of claimed pricing deception.
Third-order effects
- Allegations that Zuckerberg and Sundar Pichai personally approved the deal move exposure up to the executives themselves, raising the stakes for how ad-tech leaders document and approve platform partnerships as state-level antitrust enforcement matures.
The trend: State attorneys general are turning ad-tech's private auction arrangements into antitrust cases, escalating from leaked deal terms to claims of executive-approved, industry-wide pricing manipulation.