Google Has Been Branded An Abusive Monopolist by a Federal Judge for the second time in less than a year, this time for illly exploiting some of its online marketing technology to boosts Internet Empire Currently Worth $ 1.8 Trillion.
The ruling issued chursday by us district judge leonkema in virginia comes on the heels of a separete decision in August Leverapping its dominance to stifle competition and innovation.
After the us justice department targeted google's ubiquitous search engine during the president Donald Trump's first term, The Same Agency Went after the Company's Lucrative Digital Advertising Networks 2023 DURING President Joe Biden's Ensuing Administration in an attempt to undercut the power that google has amasseded since its incoriction in a silicon valley Garage in 1998.
Although Antitrust Regulators Prevailed Both Times, The Battle is Likely to Continue for Several More Years as Google Tries to overload the two monopoly decisions in appeals with Highly Lucrative Technological Frontier of Artificial Intelligence.
The next step in the latest case is a penalty phase that will likely begin late this year or early next year. The same so-called remedy hearings in the search monopoly case are scheduled to begin monday in washington dc, where justice department lawyers will try to convince USTICEM A sweping punishment that include a proposed requirement for google to sell its chrome web browser.
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Brinkema's 115-Page Decision Centers on the Marketing Machine that Google Has Spent The Past 17 Years Building Around Its Search Engine and Other Wedly Used Products and Services, Including Chrome Browser, YouTube video site and digital maps.
The system was worked a series of acquisitions that started with Google's $ 3.2 billion purchase of online ad special dualclic Made before realizing that they had given the mountain view, california, company a platform to manipulate the price in an ecosystem that a wide of range of websites depend on for rev the and provides Connection to consumers.
The Justice Department Lawyers Argued that Google Built and MainTailed Dominant Market Positions in a Technology Trfecta Used by Website Publishers to Sell Ad Space on their webs Technology that advertisers use to get their ads in front of consumers, and the ad exchanges that Conduct Automated Auctions in Fractions of a second to match boyer and seller.
After evaluating the evidence presented during a lengthy trial that concluded just before thanksgiving last year, brinkema reacted a decision that rejected the justice department Mistreating advertisers while concluding the company has been abusing its power to stifle competition to the detrients of online publicers forced to rely on its
“For over a decade, google have tied its publisher ad server and ad exchange together through contracuual policies and technological integration, which enabled the company to ectabilish and protect its monopoly Power in these two markets. ” Brinkema Wrote. “Google further entched its monopoly power by imposing anticompetitive policies on its customers and eliminating desirable product features.”
Despite that rebuke, brinkema also concluded
The Justice Department “Failed to Show that the DoubleClick and Admeld Acquisitions was antikompetivate,” Brinkema Wrote. “Although these acquisitions Helped Google Gain Monopoly Power in two Adjacent Ad Tech Markets, they are insufficient, when Viewed in Isolation, To Prove that Google Acquired Or Maintenad This Mainopoly Power through exclusionary practices. “
That finding may help Google Fight off Any Attempt to Force It To Sell Its Advertising Technology to Stop Its Monopolistic Behavior.
“This is a landmark Victory in the ongoing fight to stop google from monopolizing the digital public Square,” Us Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement.
In a statement, google said it will appeal the ruling.
“We disagree with the court's decision regarding our publisher tools,” said lee-anne mulholland, Google's Vice President of Regulatory Affairs. “Publishers have many options and they choose google because our ad tech tools are simple, affordable and effective.”
Analysts Such as Brian Pitz of BMO Markets Had Been Predicting that Google All Likely Lose the case, help in investors for the latest setback to the company and items corporates paresh. whose shares declined by about 1% Thursday to Close at $ 151.22. Alphabet's stock has plunged by 20% so far this year.
On top of the setbacks in search and advertising, google also is fighting a federal jury's 2023 verdict that determined its play store for apps on smartphones power Illegal monopoly.
As it did in the search monopoly case, google vehemently dented the justice department's allegations. Its lawers argued the government larger Includes the Likes of Facebook Parent Meta Platforms, Amazon, Microsoft and Comcast.
The market as drawn in the justice department's case did not invallde ads that appear on mobile apps, streaming televingion services, or other platforms to which users have increded insures Prompting Google Lawyer Karen Dunn to Compare the government's definition a September.
At Trial, The Justice Department's Lawyers Emphasized The harm to news publishers that have arisen from google's alleged dominance of the marketplace. Witnesses from Gannett, The Publisher of Usa Today and other newspapers, and news corp., the publisher of the wall street journey, testified about the differenties they have faced and what they said were said was a forest of alternatives to google's ad tech. Thos Companies relay on online advertising to fund their news operations and make their articles free to consumers on the internet, government lawyers have argued.
Now the government is in position to try to dismantle that byzantine ad system. When the case was filed more than two years ago during the biden administration, the justice department asserted google should be forced to sell, at a minimum, its ad manager product, its ad manager product Used by website publishers and the ad exchange.
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