The ruling allows prosecutors to argue for the dissolution of Google’s advertising products.
A US judge determined that Alphabet’s Google illegally controlled two markets for its online advertising technology, and that it had dealt another blow to Tech Titan with antitrust laws brought by the US government.
On Thursday, US District Judge Leonie Brinkema in Alexandria, Virginia, determined that Google had illegally dominated a market that was illegally dominated by Google due to the market for AD exchanges between the publisher’s ad server and buyers and sellers. The antitrust enforcer failed to show that the company has a monopoly on the ad network of advertisers, she wrote.
The ruling allows prosecutors to argue for the dissolution of Google’s advertising products. The US Department of Justice says Google needs to at least sell Google Ad Manager. This includes the ad servers of the company’s publisher and their ad exchanges.
Google faces the possibility that two different US courts are ordering assets to sell or change business practices.
A Washington judge will hold trial next week on DOJ’s request to have Google sell its Chrome browser and take other steps to end that advantage in online searches.
Google has previously considered selling ad exchanges to appease European antitrust regulators.
Brinkema oversaw a three-week trial last year on the claims filed by the DOJ and the state coalition.
Google used the classic monopoly tactics of eliminating competitors through acquisitions, locking customers into using its products, and controlling how transactions occurred in the online advertising market, prosecutors said at the trial.
Google claimed that the incident focused on the past. This claimed the company was still working to create tools that could connect to competitors’ products. According to Google’s lawyers, prosecutors also ignored competition from technology companies, including Amazon.com and Comcast, as digital ad spending shifted to apps and streaming videos.
The move comes as Meta, Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp parent companies face allegations of monopoly competition.