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An American federal judge ruled on Google illegally acquired and has maintained a monopoly in digital advertising, the last antitrust defeat for the technology giant which could lead to its obligation to assign parts of its activities.
Leonie Brinkema, the district judge presiding over the case in Virginia, said Thursday Google If “deliberately” monopolized two parts of the digital advertising market: technological online publishers used to sell the advertising space, and the greatest exchange on which companies bid advertisements.
However, Brinkema noted that the American Ministry of Justice, which brought the case, was unable to prove that Google has unjustly dominated the third component of the market, the advertising networks of the advertiser.
The decision comes after a federal judge in a antitrust case Last year, the company spent billions of dollars in exclusive offers to maintain an illegal monopoly on research.
The second phase of this trial, in which the court will determine the appeals that may include Google forcing to sell parts of its activities, begins next week.
The Doj asked in the case of search for Google to sell its Chrome browserStop $ 20 billion in Apple payments each year to be its default search engine, and share more data with competitors.
Brinkema wrote Thursday: “For more than a decade, Google equaled its advertising server and its exchange of ads through contractual policies and technological integration, which allowed the company to establish and protect its monopoly power on these two markets.”
“Google has also rooted its monopoly power by imposing anti-competitive policies on its customers and eliminating the characteristics of the desirable products,” she added.
But she rejected the way in which the Doj had tried to define the third part of the market, claiming that the term “advertising advertising network” was rare in industry and “unduly excluding” publishers.
Google said: “We have won half of this case and we will call on the other half … We do not agree with the court's decision concerning our publisher tools.
The decision is the last victory of the former antitrust officials appointed by former president Joe Biden who wore and pleaded the case before Donald Trump returned to the White House.
Jonathan Kanter, the former chief of the antitrust unit of the Doj, said Thursday in an article on X: “Today is a huge victory for the application of antitrust, the media industry and open and open internet … Google is now an illegal monopolist twice.”
Antitrust officials appointed by Trump strongly pointed out that they intended to adopt a difficult position on the application, especially against Big Tech. The Federal Trade American Commission this week began to do its Meta case In a monopoly trial before the Washington Federal Court.
The Ministry of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comments.
In a reaction, the head of the EU competition, Teresa Ribera, said: “We take note of the decision and we will study it with interest. The case analyzed by the European Commission continues.”
The commission also investigates Google to promote its own advertising services.
Additional Barbara Moens report in Brussels.
