Google set up a ‘nefarious’ project codenamed Jedi as its digital advertising business came under threat, a US court heard.
Bosses knew internet publishers wanted to ‘keep Google at bay’ by using a new way to sell ads, emails allegedly show.
Executives expressed fears that Jedi – set up to undermine the new sales system, which made publishers rely on Google less – would be seen as ‘nefarious’ and ‘self-serving’, but it went ahead.
In an antitrust trial in Virginia brought against Google by the US Department of Justice, government lawyers allege the firm controlled the market for online display advertising and was anti-competitive, which it denies.
Google owns the technology used by most publishers to sell ad space, the main system they use to buy that space, and the biggest exchange where auctions are held to buy and sell the adverts.
The exchange, AdX, takes a 20 percent cut of each advertising dollar.
The complex case is being heard in a federal court in Alexandria, Virginia by Judge Leonie Brinkema, without a jury.
The Department of Justice wants Google to be forced to sell off part of its business. The case continues.