In today’s Digest, we discuss OpenX accusing Google of ad auction bias in a new lawsuit, Perplexity being accused of ignoring AI scraping blocks, and the falling number of Brits consuming news through print or online news brands.

OpenX accuses Google of ad auction bias

OpenX has filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against Google, accusing the tech giant of manipulating digital ad auctions and engaging in anticompetitive conduct that allegedly damaged OpenX’s business and distorted the digital advertising market.

Filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, the lawsuit claims that Google’s practices such as requiring publishers to use its ad server (DoubleClick for Publishers) and restricting access to Google Ads undermined fair competition. OpenX alleges that Google also disabled price floor settings that could have allowed publishers to support rival exchanges and used its control of the ad auction infrastructure to gain an unfair advantage.

As a result of Google’s alleged conduct, OpenX claimed it was forced to shutter its ad server in mid-2019, a move that severely weakened its ad exchange operations and overall ability to compete.

OpenX wrote in the lawsuit that “Google’s conduct has stifled innovation, harmed competition, decreased product quality, and caused significant damage to OpenX, as well as to Google’s own publisher and advertiser customers.” 

Perplexity accused of ignoring AI scraping blocks

Perplexity has been accused by Cloudflare of scraping websites that explicitly indicate opposition to such activity, through Robots.txt files and other tools. In a blog post, Cloudflare claimed that Perplexity attempted to bypass restrictions by disguising its crawler’s identity and rotating IP addresses, allegedly masking its activity across tens of thousands of domains and millions of requests per day. Cloudflare researchers said this move was “an attempt to circumvent the website’s preferences.”

Perplexity denied the allegations, calling Cloudflare’s claims a “sales pitch” and insisting that the crawler in question “isn’t even ours.” However, Cloudflare said it began investigating after complaints from customers, ultimately confirming that Perplexity’s tools were ignoring established anti-crawling protocols.

Only one third of Brits consume news brands

According to Ofcom’s latest Media Nations report, only 34% of UK adults say they consume news through print or online news brands, a figure that drops to just 22% among 16 to 24-year-olds.

TV remains the dominant news source for those aged 34 and above, while younger audiences increasingly rely on social media and other online formats such as blogs and podcasts. However, just 44% of respondents rate social media as trustworthy for news, compared to 68% for TV and 67% for radio.

Fewer than one in four Brits (23%) read online news brands, and only 13% read online magazines. Print news and magazine reach is slightly higher, but largely driven by readers aged 75 and over. For younger audiences, traditional formats continue to lose ground to platforms like social media (94% usage among 15 to 24-year-olds), VOD (87%) and streaming music (85%).