In a potential blow to Google’s massive advertising business and technology, a U.S. judge ruled Thursday that Google violated antitrust laws to hold a monopoly over online advertising.
On Thursday, a federal judge ruled that tech giant Google violated antitrust laws in order to hold a monopoly over online advertising technology.
“Plaintiffs have proven that Google has willfully engaged in a series of anti-competitive acts to acquire and maintain monopoly power in the publisher ad server and ad exchange markets for open-web display advertising,” said U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema Thursday in her case filing.
The decision addressed the $31 billion portion of Google’s advertising business that matches website publishers with advertisers. The court ruling opens the door to allow prosecutors to pursue a potential breakup of Google’s advertising products.
“For over a decade, Google has tied its publisher ad server and ad exchange together through contractual policies and technological integration, which enabled the company to establish and protect its monopoly power in these two markets,” Judge Brinkema said. “Google further entrenched its monopoly power by imposing anti-competitive policies on its customers and eliminating desirable product features.”
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Alphabet-owned Google could face remedies such as forcing Google to break up or sell its advertising business like Google Ad Manager, which includes its AdX ad exchange and DFP ad server for publishers.
These technologies determine what banner ads show up on countless sites across the web.
Google Deprived ‘Rivals Of The Ability To Compete’
In addition, Judge Brinkema said Google deprived “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.”
Judge Brinkema found Google liable under the Sherman Antitrust Act.
However, Judge Brinkema said antitrust enforcers failed to show that Google had a monopoly in advertiser ad networks.
The Justice Department initially filed the lawsuit against Google in 2023.
Having found Google liable, the court will set a briefing schedule and hearing date to determine the appropriate remedies.
