Google’s advertising technology unit has been deemed by a federal court an illegal monopoly. US District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema, a Clinton appointee, issued the decision on Thursday, April 17. This marks the second such ruling in Justice Department cases against Google. Last year, the company lost a federal monopoly case against its search engine, and it faces pressure in the EU as well.
The case was decided in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Alexandria, and revolves around Google’s significant role in brokering the sale of online advertising to website operators. Judge Brinkema’s opinion was that Google illegally monopolized some advertising markets. In the opinion, the judge wrote:
“In sum, Plaintiffs have shown that Google engaged in ‘willful acquisition or maintenance of [its monopoly] power as distinguished from growth or development as a consequence of a superior product, business acumen, or historical accident’ by tying DFP to AdX and committing a series of exclusionary and anticompetitive acts to entrench its monopoly power in two adjacent product markets.”
The court will set a date to determine the remedies, which might include monetary damages and divesting Google’s publisher ad server and ad exchange products. Some consequences, however, were more immediate. Once news broke of the ruling, the value of Alphabet’s (the company that owns Google) stock saw a 1.3% (about $2 per share) drop.
