The US Justice Department (DoJ) has formally requested a federal judge to compel Google to divest significant portions of its advertising technology business and mandate the sharing of real-time data with competitors. This demand is a proposed remedy to address a recent ruling that found the technology giant illegally monopolizes a substantial segment of the market for placing online advertisements across the internet.
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The DoJ presented this request on Friday in a US court during an ongoing trial concerning Google’s advertising operations. This legal action is separate from another high-profile antitrust trial in Washington, D.C., where the government is challenging Google’s dominance in the internet search market.
US District Judge Leonie Brinkema has scheduled a hearing for 22 September to consider proposals aimed at rectifying the competitive harm she identified within Google’s advertising business.
Karen Dunn, a lawyer representing Google, stated that the company is amenable to behavioural remedies, such as granting competitors access to real-time bidding data. However, she argued that prosecutors lack the legal basis to pursue a forced sale of parts of Google’s business. Dunn further contended that such a divestiture would negatively impact internet users and would likely face a scarcity of viable buyers.
Publisher ad servers are critical platforms utilized by websites to organize and manage their available digital advertising space. In conjunction with ad exchanges, this technology enables news publishers and other online content creators to generate revenue through the sale of advertisements.
In her ruling issued in April, Judge Brinkema concluded that Google had unlawfully linked publishers’ utilization of its ad exchange to the mandatory use of its ad server. She also found that Google implemented anticompetitive policies that were “not in its publisher customers’ best interests.” The judge asserted that this conduct harmed fair competition, negatively affected publishers’ ability to monetize their content effectively, and ultimately disadvantaged internet users.
Notably, Google had previously explored the possibility of selling its ad exchange as a potential measure to appease European antitrust regulators, as reported by Reuters in September of the preceding year. This prior consideration suggests an awareness within Google of the potential for regulatory intervention in its advertising technology business. The current stance of the US Justice Department indicates a more aggressive approach to addressing the identified antitrust violations. The upcoming hearing in September will be crucial in determining the extent to which Google will be compelled to restructure its advertising operations to foster greater competition in the digital advertising landscape.
