Google monopolizing online advertising, judge finds

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema on Thursday ruled the tech giant has illegally built a monopoly in digital advertising technology. The ruling is the second antitrust lawsuit Google has lost in a year. A group of 17 states and the U.S. Department of Justice in 2023 sued the company claiming it was able to charge higher prices for online advertising because of its dominance in the market. Google willfully engaged in anticompetitive practices to acquire power in the publisher ad server and ad exchange markets, Brinkema wrote. The company illegally tied the server and exchange together through contracts in order to maintain a monopoly, according to the ruling. Brinkema threw out a third argument that Google operated a monopoly in advertiser ad networks.

How have officials responded? Attorney General Pamela Bondi praised the ruling and Assistant Attorney General Abigail Slater said it was another step to loosening Google’s dominance over the internet. Meanwhile, Google plans to appeal the decision, according to Google Vice President of Regulatory Affairs Lee-Anne Mulholland. The judge found that Google’s advertiser tools do not harm competition and the company disagrees with the court’s opinion that publisher tools hurt users, she said.

What other cases have been brought against Google? A federal judge in August ruled that the company has a monopoly in online search services and text advertisements that appear with searches. Another court in December 2023 ordered the company to pay $700 million in compensation after a jury found that Google’s app store is an illegal monopoly.

Meanwhile, the DOJ is urging a federal judge to make Google divest from its Chrome internet browser. The tech giant has said the proposal would endanger Americans’ cybersecurity.

Dig deeper:  Read my report in WORLD Magazine about the attempt to downsize Google.