It’s Round 2 of the Justice Department’s attempt to break up Google’s market dominance.
This time, federal prosecutors on Monday asked a U.S. judge in Virginia to order Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc., to divest its largest advertising exchange, where businesses compete for ad placements, and to gradually sell off the technology that online publishers rely on to monetize their ad inventory.
The trial that began Monday in a federal courthouse in Alexandria, Va., centers on the anticompetitive practices that led U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema to rule that portions of Google’s digital advertising infrastructure constitute an illegal monopoly. The judge determined that Google has pursued strategies that suppress competition, harming online publishers who rely on these systems for income.
Over the next two weeks, Google and the Justice Department will present evidence in this “remedy” phase of the proceedings, after which Judge Brinkema will decide what measures are needed to restore competitive market conditions.
The trial is but the latest antitrust travail for Google, which was spared from breaking off its online search following the Justice Department’s victory last year in an illegal monopoly case.
“The goal of a remedy is to take whatever steps are needed to bring back competition,” stated Julia Tarver Wood during the Justice Department’s antitrust division opening statement on Monday.
Wood argued that Google is distorting the marketplace in ways that undermine genuine free market competition.
Google attorney Karen Dunn responded by characterizing the government’s proposed remedy as reckless and extreme, claiming that prosecutors are trying to eliminate Google from the competitive landscape altogether.
Regardless of the judge’s final decision, Google has indicated it will challenge the previous ruling that classified its ad network as a monopoly. However, appeals cannot be submitted until the remedial measures are finalized.
The 2-year-old lawsuit, started during the Biden administration, challenges the intricate system Google has constructed over nearly two decades to fuel its leading position in digital advertising. That advertising network not only comprises the majority of the $305 billion in annual revenue generated by Google’s services for Alphabet, but also serves as the essential funding source that sustains thousands of websites across the internet.
