Google’s latest antitrust defeat in the United States could lead to the forced sale of parts of its business. A US court has found that the company illegally monopolised the markets for advertising exchanges and ad servers.
The ruling, reported by the Financial Times and cited by UNN, is a significant blow to the tech giant. A federal court in Virginia, presided over by Judge Leonie Brinkema, concluded on Thursday that Google had “knowingly” monopolised the ad exchange and ad server markets for publishers.
However, the court did not find Google guilty of monopolising advertising networks for advertisers. Judge Brinkema acknowledged that the US Department of Justice, which brought the case, failed to prove this specific claim.
In response, Google issued a statement saying: “We won half of this case and will appeal the other half. We disagree with the court’s decision regarding our tools for publishers. Publishers have many options, and they choose Google because our advertising technologies are simple, accessible and effective.”
This ruling follows a separate antitrust case from last year, where another federal judge found that Google had spent billions of dollars on exclusive agreements to sustain an unlawful monopoly in the search engine market. The second phase of that trial, which will address potential remedies, is scheduled to begin next week.
In that case, the Department of Justice is pushing for major structural changes. These include forcing Google to sell its Chrome browser, ending its estimated $20 billion (£16 billion) in annual payments to Apple for default search placement, and requiring the company to share more user data with competitors.
Additionally, Google has agreed to pay $28 million (£22.5 million) over accusations of discriminatory treatment of employees.
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