Home The Big Story Inside The Ruling That Deemed Google Search A Monopoly

Inside The Ruling That Deemed Google Search A Monopoly

SHARE:

For the past several years, people have lobbed the term “monopolist” at Google. But now it’s not just a playground insult. Google is a monopolist, according to a 286-page ruling by Judge Mehta after a long and winding trial for the tech giant.

On this week’s episode of The Big Story, to help us decipher the case, we bring on Adam Epstein, a lawyer and the co-CEO of adMarketplace, which runs a search engine tool and advertising business. He shares his analysis of what the ruling means, how it’s being received by legal experts and industry insiders and what potential remedies might look like.

A postmonopoly future may bring significant change, with Google forced to release its iron grip on search and, shockingly, open up the search experience to allow for more players. Join us as we debrief the case attracting the most notice inside the search advertising community – and why the ruling matters to anyone knee-deep in ad tech.

Plus: Next month, a second antitrust trial against Google begins, this time for its dominance in the ad tech market – i.e., its SSP, ad server and how it works with publishers. The fact that everyone involved, from the judge to the lawyers to the witnesses, knows that Google just lost an antitrust trial will surely influence the case.

 

Must Read

Albert Thompson, Managing Director, Digital at Walton Isaacson

To Cure What Ails Digital Advertising, Marketers And Publishers Must Get Back To Basics

Albert Thompson, a buy-side veteran with 20+ years of experience, weighs in on attention metrics, the value of MFA sites, brand safety backlash and how publishers can improve their inventory.

A comic depiction of Google's ad machine sucking money out of a publisher.

DOJ vs. Google, Day Five Rewind: Prebid Reality Check, Unfair Rev Share And Jedi Blue (Sorta)

Someone will eventually need to make a Netflix-style documentary about the Google ad tech antitrust trial happening in Virginia. (And can we call it “You’ve Been Ad Served?”)

Comic: Alphabet Soup

Buried DOJ Evidence Reveals How Google Dealt With The Trade Desk

In the process of the investigation into Google, the Department of Justice unearthed a vast trove of separate evidence. Some of these findings paint a whole new picture of how Google interacts and competes with its main DSP rival, The Trade Desk.

Privacy! Commerce! Connected TV! Read all about it. Subscribe to AdExchanger Newsletters
Comic: The Unified Auction

DOJ vs. Google, Day Four: Behind The Scenes On The Fraught Rollout Of Unified Pricing Rules

On Thursday, the US district court in Alexandria, Virginia boarded a time machine back to April 18, 2019 – the day of a tense meeting between Google and publishers.

Google Ads Will Now Use A Trusted Execution Environment By Default

Confidential matching – which uses a TEE built on Google Cloud infrastructure – will now be the default setting for all uses of advertiser first-party data in Customer Match.

In 2019, Google moved to a first-price auction and also ceded its last look advantage in AdX, in part because it had to. Most exchanges had already moved to first price.

Unraveling The Mystery Of PubMatic’s $5 Million Loss From A “First-Price Auction Switch”

PubMatic’s $5 million loss from DV360’s bidding algorithm fix earlier this year suggests second-price auctions aren’t completely a thing of the past.