US To Move Towards Digital Ad Break Ups: How Will The Google Monopoly End?

A federal judge in an antitrust ruling on Thursday has decided that Alphabet's Google has illegally dominated two key markets within the online advertising technology sector.

This decision marks yet another setback for the tech giant, among others, in its ongoing legal battle with the US government.

The US District Judge Leonie Brinkema of the Alexandria, Virginia, court ruled that Google has unlawfully monopolised the markets for publisher ad servers as well as ad exchanges, which facilitate transactions between ad buyers and sellers.

However, according to a Reuters report, the judge found that antitrust enforcers did not successfully prove Google held a monopoly in advertiser ad networks.

How Will Google's Business Get Affected?

Consequentially, this ruling makes way for prosecutors to pursue remedies that could include the forced breakup of Google's advertising business.

Previously, the United States Department of Justice has advocated in the favour of Google to divest at least its Ad Manager, which is a suite of tools encompassing the company's publisher ad server and ad exchange.

Currently, Google is facing the potential of being subjected to divestiture orders or significant changes in its business practices from two different US courts.

In a trial scheduled for next week, the US Department of Justice will compel Google to sell its Chrome browser and implement other measures which are aimed at curbing its dominance in online searches.

Google's Defense

Google in its defense said that the case focused on a past reality and emphasised that the company is making efforts to ensure its tools could connect with competitors' products.

According to previous reports, Google had the possibility of selling off its ad exchange in an attempt to appease European antitrust regulators.

Additionally, the tech giant's legal team further pushed that the prosecutors disregarded competition from other technology giants like Amazon and Comcast.

Responding to the verdict, Google wrote in a post on X, while citing Lee-Anne Mulholland, Vice President, Regulatory Affairs, "We won half of this case and we will appeal the other half. The Court found that our advertiser tools and our acquisitions, such as DoubleClick, don’t harm competition. We disagree with the Court’s decision regarding our publisher tools. Publishers have many options and they choose Google because our ad tech tools are simple, affordable and effective."

Amidst several other concerns Google is caught up in an antitrust storm and has been branded as a global abusive monopolist too.

Also Read: Why Is The World Busting Google? Explained In 10-Points