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Alphabet’s Google illegally dominated two markets for online advertising technology, a judge ruled yesterday, dealing another blow to the tech giant and paving the way for US antitrust prosecutors to seek a breakup of its advertising products.
US District Judge Leonie Brinkema in Alexandria, Virginia, found Google liable for “willfully acquiring and maintaining monopoly power” in markets for publisher advert servers and the market for advert exchanges which sit between buyers and sellers. Publisher advert servers are platforms used by websites to store and manage their advert inventory.
Antitrust enforcers failed to prove a separate claim that the company had a monopoly in advertiser advert networks, she wrote.
Lee-Anne Mulholland, vice president of Regulatory Affairs, said Google will appeal the ruling.
“We won half of this case and we will appeal the other half,” she said, adding that the company disagrees with the decision on its publisher tools. “Publishers have many options and they choose Google because our advert tech tools are simple, affordable and effective.”
The decision clears the way for another hearing to determine what Google must do to restore competition in those markets, such as sell off parts of its business at another trial that has yet to be scheduled.
The DOJ has said that Google should have to sell off at least its Google Ad Manager, which includes the company’s publisher advert server and advert exchange.
Google now faces the possibility of two US courts ordering it to sell assets or change its business practices. A judge in Washington will hold a trial next week on the DOJ’s request to make Google sell its Chrome browser and take other measures to end its dominance in online search.
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