The U.S. Department of Justice says Google “rigged” ad auctions in a way that hurt its competition during its closing arguments in an antitrust trial. Now we wait to see if a U.S. District Court Judge will agree with them.
Google has been in antitrust court battles with the DoJ since 2023, as the federal department claims the search giant has illegally monopolized the search market.
The Department of Justice provided its closing arguments in its latest case against Google on Monday. In closing arguments, DoJ lawyer Aaron Teitelbaum claimed that Google had linked together its ad-related technologies in a way that stifled the growth of rival products. The DoJ claims this forced publishers to rely on Google’s systems for ad revenue.
Teitelbaum told Brinkema that Google’s “rigged” ad auctions, allowed them to control “multiple parts” of services used to place ads all over the Internet, unfairly advantaging itself in three markets.
As an example of the DoJ’s claims, a News Corp. executive claimed that their company was effectively held hostage to Google’s advertising platform, as it would have lost $9 million in 2017 had it abandoned it.
As you might expect, Google lawyers pushed back against the claims, as Google lawyer Vidushi Dyall questioned the lack of evidence, saying thr DoJ failed to provide examples of rival products that were directly affected by Google’s advertising technologies.
As reported by Ars Technica, Judge Leonie Brinkema, questioned the DOJ, and pointed out that advertiser feedback would be valuable in the case.
Brinkema is expected to issue a ruling on the case sometime in the following months, and since Google’s search technology was already declared an illegal monopoly, she may side with the DOJ against Google.
Google may be forced to sell off its Chrome browser as a result of a different trial, and the DoJ hopes that Google will also be forced to sell its Ad Manager, which brings in a significant source of revenue for the company.
No matter the verdict, we can expect to see appeals through 2025. The incoming Trump administration could have a big effect on Google’s case.
The Google case could have an effect on a antitrust lawsuit filed against Apple by the DoJ and multiple U.S. states, accusing the Cupertino firm of monopolistic practices. The ongoing lawsuit alleges that Apple is a monopoly as it restricts iMessage conversations to iPhone users, and does not allow third parties to access NFC technology.
However, Apple is now opening up NFC access to outside developers and it recently introduced RCS support in iMessage. This means that the DoJ’s case against the company may not be strong. Apple filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit in August and again asked the presiding judge this month to dismiss the case.
