Google ruled a monopoly over ad tech dominance

Google ruled an illegal monopolist for ad tech

The decision gave the Justice Department its second major antitrust victory against Google in eight months

(Image credit: Tayfun Coskun / Anadolu via Getty Images)

What happened

A federal judge yesterday ruled that Google's online ad technology unit constitutes an illegal monopoly, raising the possibility that the search giant may be forced to divest itself of a lucrative pillar of its business. The decision gave the Justice Department its second major antitrust victory against Google in eight months.

Who said what

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema said Google had "willfully engaged in a series of anticompetitive acts to acquire and maintain monopoly power" in the online exchanges that match ad buyers and sellers and the tools web publishers use to sell ad space, "substantially" harming publishers and, "ultimately, consumers of information on the open web." She said the Justice Department had "failed to show," however, that Google's purchases of DoubleClick and Admeld, two of the backbones of its ad-sales dominance, "were anticompetitive."

"We won half of this case and we will appeal the other half," Google's Lee-Anne Mulholland said on X. Attorney General Pam Bondi hailed the ruling as a "landmark victory in the ongoing fight to stop Google from monopolizing the digital public square."

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What next?

A second federal judge, Amit Mehta, has a hearing on Monday to start deciding the consequences of August's finding that Google's search engine was an illegal monopoly. Possible sanctions include splitting off its Chrome browser. The penalty hearings for Brinkema's ruling will "likely begin late this year or early next year," The Associated Press said. Google's appeals of both rulings "could take years," The Wall Street Journal said.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.