Google loses antitrust challenge to ad business, vows to appeal

A federal judge ruled Google illegally monopolized key portions of the online advertising market, delivering a win for the Justice Department and opening the door to structural remedies. US District Judge Leonie Brinkema found Google "willfully engaged in a series of anticompetitive acts" to dominate publisher ad servers and ad exchanges, violating sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act. In her decision, Brinkema detailed how Google tied together its publisher server and ad exchange products, stifling competition for over a decade.

While the court rejected arguments that Google's advertiser tools and past acquisitions like DoubleClick harmed competition, it sided with prosecutors on core allegations that Google's conduct harmed publishers, advertisers, and ultimately, consumers. DOJ contended that Google's practices allowed it to extract monopoly profits at the expense of a healthy open web.

Google plans to appeal. "We won half of this case, and we will appeal the other half," said Lee-Anne Mulholland, Google’s vice president of regulatory affairs, in a statement.

The case is one of two historic antitrust battles Google faces. In August, a separate federal judge ruled the company illegally protected its dominance in search. Remedies in both cases could involve forced divestitures, such as off Google Ad Manager or Chrome.

Judge Brinkema also admonished Google for failing to preserve internal chat communications during discovery, though she found sufficient evidence without imposing sanctions.

The decision underscores a growing trend of bipartisan antitrust enforcement targeting tech giants, as the DOJ and FTC simultaneously press cases against Meta, Amazon, and Apple. Remedies hearings in the ad tech case are expected to begin later this year.