Google found guilty of illegal ad tech monopolies

Google has been found guilty of "willfully acquiring and maintaining monopoly power" in two markets relating to online advertising technology.

According to Reuters, US district judge Leonie Brinkema determined that the tech giant has an illegal domination over markets for publisher ad servers and ad exchanges that sit between buyers and sellers.

Another hearing is expected to follow to dictate Google’s course of action in restoring competition in these markets. The Department of Justice has already suggested that Google should sell off Google Ad Manager.

However, Google has plans to appeal against its tools having "adverse" impacts.

A half-won battle?

The ruling in Alexandria, Virginia on April 17th stated that Google’s publisher tools excluded rivals and violated antitrust laws.

"For over a decade, Google has tied its publisher ad server and ad exchange together through contractual policies and technological integration, which enabled the company to establish and protect its monopoly power in these two markets," Brinkema wrote.

"In addition to depriving rivals of the ability to compete, this exclusionary conduct substantially harmed Google's publisher customers, the competitive process and, ultimately, consumers of information on the open web."

US attorney general Pamela Bondi called this "a landmark victory in the ongoing fight to stop Google from monopolising the digital public square".

However, Google 'won' half the case as the Department of Justice failed to demonstrate how its advertiser tools or acquisitions like DoubleClick and AdMeld were anticompetitive. By appealing the decision, it hopes to overturn the other half.

"We won half of this case and we will appeal the other half," said Google VP of regulatory affairs Lee-Anne Mulholland. "Publishers have many options and they choose Google because our ad tech tools are simple, affordable and effective."

The ruling followed a previous monopoly case regarding Google’s online search, which could require the tech giant to sell Google Chrome.