Google Has An Illegal Grip On Online Advertising Tech, Court Finds
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Summary
- A US judge has ruled that Google is an illegal monopolist in the online advertising technology sector, specifically the markets for publisher ad servers and ad exchanges.
- This ruling follows a previous decision where Google was found to be an illegal monopolist in the US search engine market, raising the possibility of significant remedies like the divestiture of its Ad Manager.
- The court has ordered Google and opposing parties to submit a joint schedule to discuss potential remedies, while Google also faces ongoing antitrust scrutiny in the UK and another upcoming trial in the US concerning the divesture of its Chrome browser.
In a major blow to Google in the US, the tech giant has been ruled as an illegal monopolist in some areas of the online advertising technology landscape.
The ruling, which comes as part of the U.S. Department of Justice’s one of many antitrust cases against Google, was made by Judge Leonie Brinkema of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
This comes roughly nine months after the tech giant was ruled an illegal monopolist by a US court for its anticompetitive search engine dominance practices.
The development (vis Reuters) indicates that the tech giant’s ad market monopoly is limited to two key markets — markets for publisher ad servers and the market for ad exchanges. Antitrust enforcers, however, were unable to demonstrate whether Google also holds a dominant position in the advertiser ad networks market. According to previous filings, Google reportedly locked customers into using its ad-tech products, acquired competing services to eliminate competition, controlled how transactions are made in the online ad market, among other claims — resulting in the tech giant’s ad tech capturing 87 percent of the market.
With the ruling out of the way now, the focus now shifts to finding the appropriate remedies. According to the District Court’s order, Google and all opposing parties have seven days to submit a “joint proposed schedule” for briefing and arguing their respective positions.
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Once deemed a monopolist in the search engine market, Google was proposed to divest Chrome as a potential remedy, alongside making “mild” changes to Android. This time around, the remedies could be equally drastic. For reference, the lawsuit preemptively sought the divestiture of Google’s Ad Manager, so it is clear that radical changes are on the table.
This comes at a tumultuous time for Google. Next week, upon the DOJ’s request, a judge in Washington is slated to hold a trial where Google’s potential divestiture of Chrome will be a key point of contention. Simultaneously, the tech giant is also facing antitrust investigations by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), with the regulatory body looking into Google’s search engine, advertising, mobile ecosystem, and connected services markets.
