DOJ reportedly set to sue Google for abusing its search and ad dominance

The lawsuit could be filed as soon as next week.

What you need to know

• The U.S. Justice Department could file a lawsuit against Google as soon as next week.
• The lawsuit alleges that Google is stifling its competitors by abusing its dominant position in the search and digital advertising spaces.
• The Justice Department is currently said to be urging various state attorneys to sign onto the lawsuit.

Google may have to face a new lawsuit from the U.S. Justice Department over "anti-competitive practices" very soon. According to a report from Reuters, the Justice Department is likely to sue Google next week.

The lawsuit apparently accuses the search giant of impeding competition by preventing competitors like Microsoft's Bing from accessing data about users and user preferences that they need to improve their search engines and advertising platforms.

Additionally, the Justice Department is also looking into Google's "search advertising," ads that are shown under the search box when someone looks up a consumer product. Google not only has full control over the sale of the space under search results, but also the tools that are required to make ad sales.

The Justice Department is said to have urged state attorneys general to sign onto the lawsuit. It is worth noting that many of them are already investigating Google's other businesses for antitrust violations.

In March last year, the European Commission had slapped Google with a $1.69 billion fine for undermining rival search engines with the help of restrictive clauses in contracts with third-party websites. The clauses prevented rival search engines such as Bing and Yahoo from displaying their ads on those websites.