- An American judge has considered Google violated antitrust laws
- According to reports, the advertising market monopolized by linking its products.
- Google could have to sell parts of your business, but remedies have not yet been confirmed
A district judge of Virginia ruled that Google violated antitrust laws by “acquiring and mainly maintaining monopoly power” in the advertising technology market, spelling potentially serious consequences for the technological giant.
The ruling follows a 2023 lawsuit by the Department of Justice, backed by eight separated states from the United States, accusing the company to damage its rivals, editors and consumers online.
Google was declared specifically guilty of monopolizing the market by joining two parts of its Adtech – Doubleclck pile for editors (DFP) and ads exchange (ADX).
Judge the rules that Google violated antitrust laws
Despite the findings, the judge did not find a monopoly in advertising networks, representing a partial victory for Google.
Although Google has been convicted, the judge did not determine any remedy. A separate judicial hearing will establish what Google must do to comply with antitrust laws and establish any direct violation. The consequences could include the rupture of Google’s advertisements, such as selling Google’s advertisements and more behavior remedies such as prohibiting Google for self-preference in advertising auctions.
“Having found Google responsible, the Court will establish an information schedule and an audience date to determine the appropriate remedies for these antitrust violations,” confirms the decision.
Observing the continuous employment of anti -competitive commercial practices for more than a decade, the judge said: “In addition to depriving rivals of the ability to compete, this exclusion behavior substantially damaged the editors of Google, the competitive process and, ultimately, to information consumers in the open network.”
“We won half of this case and we will appeal the other half. The Court determined that our advertisers and our acquisitions, such as Doubeclick, do not damage the competition,” said Vice President of Regulatory Affairs of Google Lee-Anne Mulholland Techradar Pro.
“The editors have many options and choose Google because our advertising technology tools are simple, affordable and effective.”
Google is also in hot water on its domain of the search market: nine in 10 (89.7%) of all Internet searches tracked by Statcounter used Google. Bing, secondly, represented only 4%.
If the company is convicted of rape there, it could also be forced to sell its Chrome business, a browser that represents two (66.2%) browser sessions worldwide. That case is ongoing.
