Google Loses Ad Tech Antitrust Case: Judge Rules Monopoly
Editor's note: This story has been updated to include a statement from Google.
A federal judge ruled Thursday that Google maintains an illegal monopoly over crucial aspects of online advertising technology. The case centered on Google's dominance in display advertising networks, publisher tools, and ad exchanges. The judge found Google in violation of Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act concerning its publisher tools and ad exchanges.
U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema of Virginia's decision, following a three-week trial, supports the Department of Justice's efforts to curb Google's control over the vast digital advertising market. In a 115-page opinion, Judge Brinkema detailed how Google leveraged its power in publisher ad servers and ad exchanges through policy and technology integration, enabling the company to establish and protect its monopoly in these two markets.
Judge Brinkema stated, "Google further entrenched its monopoly power by imposing anticompetitive policies on its customers and eliminating desirable product features. In addition to depriving rivals of the ability to compete, this exclusionary conduct substantially harmed Google’s publisher customers, the competitive process, and, ultimately, consumers of information on the open web.”
This ruling could significantly impact the advertising industry, potentially causing further disruption in an already turbulent year. In a separate antitrust case in August, Google was found to have a monopoly on search, with proposed remedies including spinning off its Chrome web browser. Google appealed that decision, arguing its popularity in search and the browser market stems from superior products.
This latest decision means Alphabet-owned Google now faces the prospect of divesting additional parts of its business, which primarily generates revenue from advertising, with search being its largest category. Remedies in the ad-tech case are still being determined.
“We won half of this case and we will appeal the other half," said Lee-Anne Mulholland, vice president of regulatory affairs at Google, in an emailed statement. "The Court found that our advertiser tools and our acquisitions, such as DoubleClick, don’t harm competition. We disagree with the Court’s decision regarding our publisher tools. Publishers have many options and they choose Google because our ad tech tools are simple, affordable and effective.”
Other digital advertising platforms are also under regulatory scrutiny, with an antitrust trial against Meta Platforms having started earlier this week.
Google is scheduled to report its Q1 earnings on April 24.
