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.