A US judge on Thursday ruled that Google wielded monopoly power in the online ad technology market in a blow that could rattle the tech giant’s revenue engine.
The federal government and more than a dozen US states filed the antitrust suit against Alphabet-owned Google, accusing it of acting illegally to dominate three sectors of digital advertising — publisher ad servers, advertiser tools, and ad exchanges.
It is one of two federal suits targeting Google that could ultimately see the company split up and curb its influence — and part of a wider government push to rein in Big Tech.
The vast majority of websites use a trio of Google ad software products that together leave no way for publishers to escape Google’s advertising technology, the plaintiffs alleged — and District Court Judge Leonie Brinkema agreed.
“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,” Brinkema said in her ruling.
“Google further entrenched its monopoly power by imposing anticompetitive policies on its customers and eliminating desirable product features,” she wrote.
“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.”
The ruling will almost certainly be appealed, prolonging a process that could go all the way to the US Supreme Court.
– Remedies under consideration –
Online advertising is the driving engine of Google’s fortune and pays for widely used online services such as Maps, Gmail, and search offered free.
Money pouring into Google’s coffers also allows the Silicon Valley company to spend billions of dollars on artificial intelligence to remain relevant in the world of computing.
Publishers — including News Corp and Gannett publishing — complain that they are locked into Google’s advertising technology in order to run ads on their websites.
Brinkema gave attorneys on both sides of the case seven days to submit a schedule for arguing their positions regarding what remedies should be imposed on Google.
Ordering Google to spin off its ad publisher and exchange operations is likely to be among the plaintiffs’ proposals.
