Google found guilty of monopolizing the online advertising market by a US court

Federal Judge Leonie Brinkima of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia ruled that Google illegally held a monopoly in the online advertising technology market. This is reported by The New York Times. This is the second court decision against the company in a year for violating antitrust laws.

The lawsuit was initiated by the US Department of Justice and a coalition of individual states and concerned the operation of Google’s advertising ecosystem, including products such as Google Ad Manager and technology from DoubleClick, which was acquired in 2008. In 2023, this area brought parent company Alphabet about $31 billion, which is about 10% of its total revenue. Google’s share of the ad placement technology market is 87%.

During a three-week trial in the fall of 2024, government officials tried to prove that Google artificially maintained its dominance by imposing its own tools on publishers and charging excessive fees. This, they said, harmed both competitors and sites that provide free content, and therefore consumers. Representatives of the media and advertising business also testified in the case, who stated that Google’s policies had a negative impact on their activities.

In her decision, Judge Brinkima emphasized that the company’s actions not only restricted competition, but also caused “significant harm” to Google’s customers, the competitive environment and end users. At the same time, one of the positions of the lawsuit was rejected.

Google, in turn, argued that it operates in an environment of fierce competition from other advertising platforms, social networks and streaming services, including TikTok and Netflix. The company’s defense also cited a 2004 U.S. Supreme Court decision that recognized the right of companies to independently select partners and integrate services into their own products. Google’s representative Karen Dunn called Google’s actions the result of “innovation in response to competition.”

The decision increases the pressure on Google: in August 2024, the court recognized the company as a monopoly in the search industry. Both cases became the basis for initiatives by the U.S. Department of Justice, which insists on the structural separation of Google’s business, in particular, the sale of part of the advertising business. If the court satisfies these requirements, this could significantly change the company’s position in the digital advertising market and limit its influence on the Internet infrastructure as a whole.