Google’s Ad Empire Just Took A Hit — And It’s Only The Beginning

Summary: The U.S. Department of Justice has ruled that Google unlawfully maintained a monopoly over key segments of the ad tech industry, including publisher tools and ad exchanges. The three-week trial concluded that Google used anticompetitive practices to dominate the market, while the company insists its ad tools benefit the open web. Google plans to appeal — but with another DOJ trial looming, its broader empire may be in deeper trouble.

The United States Department of Justice went to trial with Google, claiming that the search giant had been operating a monopoly in the advertising technology industry. The ruling says, “Plaintiffs have proven that Google has willfully engaged in a series of anticompetitive acts to acquire and maintain monopoly power in the publisher ad server and ad exchange markets for open-web display advertising.”

This trial lasted about three weeks, during which time, the DOJ argued that Google illegally monopolized three separate markets in the ad tech space. This included publisher ad tools, advertiser ad networks and the ad exchanges that facilitate transactions. While also arguing that Google illegally tiedthe  publisher ad server and ad exchange together, which as in violation of antitrust law.

The Justice Department also claimed that Google collects monopoly profits at the expense of publishers and advertisers, which results in a worse experience, with no real alternatives.

Google argued that the governments view of the market was not based in reality. Claiming that their tools help publishers and advertisers make money, and the fact that it has tools in different parts of the market, just helps them work well together. Google also claimed it had legitimate business reasons for this behavior, and the government wants to dictae how it can do business.

What’s next for Google?

Google will undoubtedly appeal this decision, which could take a while. So we wouldn’t expect anything to change anytime soon. However, this is not the only case Google has against it.

The search giant is also getting ready to meet the DOJ in another federal court, for the remedies phase of its search trial. Where the Biden DOJ proposed breaking up Google, and forcing it to spin out its Chrome browser, as well as forcing it to syndicate search results. Which arguably will have a bigger impact on Google than the adtech case.