US accuses Google of illegal methods to push up ad prices
US accuses Google of illegal methods to push up ad prices

US accuses Google of illegal methods to push up ad prices

US accuses Google of illegal methods to push up ad prices
US accuses Google of illegal methods to push up ad prices
Does it swap search terms just for the portion that returns the ad or for the search as well? If it's just the ad, that doesn't seem very problematic, just an implementation detail on how it chooses which ad to show. If it's for the search as well, I don't see how that would benefit Google. They wouldn't be able to consider a search result click a successful conversion if it wasn't an actual advertisement.
If the ads were targeted to people searching for [brandname] then that would be straight up illegal. Companies would have a slam dunk case in court.