A US federal judge ruled that Google illegally created and maintained a monopoly in the digital advertising space, paving the way for the tech giant to potentially be forced to divest part of its business.<\/p>\n
District Judge Leonie Brinkema, who presided over the case in Virginia, said on Thursday that Google “intentionally” monopolized two parts of the digital advertising market.<\/p>\n
This includes the technology online publishers use to sell ad space and the largest area where businesses bid for ads.<\/p>\n
But Brinkema ruled that the US Department of Justice, which brought the case, failed to prove that Google unfairly dominated the third component of the market, advertiser ad networks.<\/p>\n
The ruling comes after a federal judge in a separate antitrust case last year found that the company spent billions of dollars on exclusive deals to maintain its illegal monopoly in the search space.<\/p>\n
The second phase of this case, where the court will determine remedies, which could include forcing Google to sell off part of its business, begins next week.<\/p>\n
In that case, the Department of Justice asked Google to sell its Chrome browser, stop its annual $20 billion payment to Apple to be the default search engine, and share more data with competitors.<\/p>\n
In her ruling on Thursday, Brinkema wrote, “For over a decade, Google has tied its publisher ad server and ad exchange together through contract policies and technological integration, which has enabled the company to create and maintain its monopoly power in these two markets. Google further solidified its monopoly power by imposing anticompetitive policies on its customers and eliminating desirable product features.”<\/p>\n
But she rejected the department’s definition of the third part of the market, saying the term “advertiser ad network” was not common in the industry and “unfairly excluded” publishers.<\/p>\n
Google, in a statement, emphasized that they “won half” of the case and would appeal the other half. The statement said, “We disagree with the court’s ruling regarding our publisher tools. Publishers have many options and choose Google because our ad tech tools are simple, affordable, and effective.”<\/p>\n
The ruling was the latest victory for former antitrust officials appointed by former President Joe Biden, who brought the case before Donald Trump returned to the White House.<\/p>\n
Jonathan Kanter, former head of the Department of Justice’s antitrust division, said in a post on X on Thursday, “Today is a huge victory for antitrust enforcement, the media industry, and a free and open internet. Google is now twice as much an illegal monopolist.”<\/p>\n
Antitrust officials appointed by Trump have sent strong signals that they intend to take a tough stance on enforcement, particularly against Big Tech.<\/p>\n
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) this week began its monopoly case against Meta in Washington federal court. US Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement, “This is a landmark victory in the ongoing fight to prevent Google from monopolizing the digital public square. The Department of Justice will continue to take bold legal steps to protect the American people from technology companies’ encroachments on free speech and free markets.”<\/p>\n
The EU’s competition chief, Teresa Ribera, said they noted the decision and would “examine it with interest.”<\/p>\n
The European Commission is also investigating Google for allegedly favoring its own advertising services.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A US federal judge ruled that Google illegally created and maintained a monopoly in the digital advertising space, paving the way for the tech giant to potentially be forced to divest part of its business. District Judge Leonie Brinkema, who presided over the case in Virginia, said on Thursday that Google “intentionally” monopolized two parts […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9027,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[176],"tags":[9331,9329,9332,9328,9334,9335,9333,9330],"class_list":["post-9026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-america","tag-ad-tech-lawsuit","tag-digital-advertising-monopoly","tag-google-ad-tech","tag-google-antitrust","tag-google-monopoly-ruling","tag-leonie-brinkema","tag-online-advertising-market","tag-us-department-of-justice"],"yoast_head":"\n