Business Insider reports that British publisher, The Guardian, is preparing to file a lawsuit against ad tech company Rubicon Project.  The Guardian is alleging Rubicon Project did not disclose fees it levied on advertiser’s looking to buy the newspaper’s on-line ad inventory.

Billboard Insider recently reported on Rubicon Project and their newly announced business relationship with Clear Channel Outdoor Americas (see article here).

Rubicon Project provided the following statement on the matter:

“We charge buyer fees for certain services we provide and have disclosed that fact publicly, including in our SEC filings, and in client contracts, including a contract we signed with Guardian over a year ago. We split our fees between sellers and buyers, reflecting the value we provide to both.

Our marketplace fees on transactions support the considerable and compounding costs of performing an open auction – including our extensive brand protection and inventory quality screening, and malware protection. As we add new buyers and sellers onto the platform, the resulting impact is compounding infrastructure costs. Without buyer fees we would need to charge sellers more, and we think our approach is fair.

Rubicon Project connects more than 500,000 advertisers, hundreds of DSPs, more than 1 million websites and 20,000 mobile applications. We believe that the aggregate fees we charge represent the value for our services and are in line with industry practice. The Guardian’s claims amount to a contract dispute, which we will vigorously contest in court.”

Insider Take: Given the complicated nature and learning curve on online advertising, it will be interesting to see if this process provides some additional light on billing structures and fees earned by the operators of large digital advertising marketplaces.

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