Google's Online Advertising Technology Ruled Illegal

Alphabet, the parent company of  Google, has illegally dominated two markets for online advertising technology. Google lost on two of the three charges abjudicated, while the third was dismissed. 

The judgement, which was issued last week, is a major blow to Alphabet and opens up the way for US anti-trust prosecutors to seek the breakup of its advertising products. 

The US Department of Justice and 17 US States have sued Google saying that the tech company was illegally dominating the technology that decides which adverts should be placed online and where.

This is the second anti-trust case Google has lost in a year, after it was ruled the company also had an online search monopoly. Google has already said it would appeal against the Justice Dept. decision.

US district judge Leonie Brinkema said in the ruling that Google had "wilfully engaged in a series of anticompetitive acts" which enabled it to "acquire and maintain monopoly power" in the market."This exclusionary conduct substantially harmed Google's publisher customers, the competitive process, and, ultimately, consumers of information on the open web," she said.

Google's lawyers had argued the case focused too much on its past activities, and prosecutors ignored other large ad tech providers such as Amazon.

Google operates large businesses on both the buyer and seller sides of the online advertising market, as well as an ad exchange which matches demand and supply. In a series of anti-trust lawsuits, the US government has argued that Google and its parent company Alphabet should be broken up, which could include selling off parts of the company, including the Chrome browser.

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 soon on the justice department’s request to make Google sell its Chrome browser and take other measures to end its dominance in online search.  Google has previously explored selling off its advertising exchange business to comply with European Union antitrust regulators. 

Reuters  |    BBC   |   Court Listener  |   Guardian  |    First Post  |   Hurriyet Daily 

Image: Ideogram

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