Washington, Jan 24 (AP) The Justice Department and several states sued Google on Tuesday, alleging that its dominance in digital advertising harms competition.

The government alleges that Google's plan to assert dominance has been to “neutralise or eliminate” rivals through acquisitions and to force advertisers to use its products by making it difficult to use competitors' products.

Also Read | Earthquake Data Hints Earth's Inner Core ‘Stopped Rotating’, Debate Rages.

The antitrust suit was filed in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia. Attorney General Merrick Garland was expected to discuss it at a news conference later on Tuesday.

The DOJ's suit accuses Google of unlawfully monopolizing the way ads are served online by excluding competitors. This includes its 2007 acquisition of DoubleClick, a dominant ad server, and subsequent rollout of technology that locks in the split-second bidding process for ads that get served on Web pages.

Also Read | BBC Documentary on PM Narendra Modi: UK’s House of Lords Member Dolar Amarshi Popat Asks Broadcaster to Halt Screening of Second Part of ‘India: The Modi Question’.

Representatives for Alphabet Inc., Google's parent company, did not immediately respond to a message for comment. (AP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)