From cookies to monopolies, Google is dominating our news cycle.
Last Thursday, after five months of suspense, Judge Brinkema delivered the verdict on the Google ad tech antitrust trial. Google was found guilty of monopolizing two advertising markets, both on the sell side: the ad server market and the SSP market. And it unlawfully tied its ad server, DFP, to its ad exchange, Google AdX. Google was not found to be a monopolist in the ad network business.
On the podcast, we bring on our courtroom reporter and managing editor Allison Schiff, who shares her reaction to the verdict, as well as what she’s hearing from her sources about the trial’s outcome. She will also tell us what’s next. Will Google appeal? What could the remedies be? Will we see Google spin off part of its ad tech business?
We also bring on Senior Editor Anthony Vargas, who has been knocking on virtual office doors to gather reactions from the industry. In a word: Publishers feel vindicated. But is it too little too late?
Third-party cookies won’t quit
On the heels of Apple’s consent framework for its apps – AppTrackingTransparency (ATT) being ruled anticompetitive in Europe – Google abandoned its own pursuit of an enhanced user choice framework for Chrome.
Google had hinted it would make the third-party cookie opt-in settings more prominent. But as of Tuesday, it changed its mind: Users will need to dig into their settings to change third-party cookies.
The move signals how intertwined product decisions have been with the risk of regulation. The question “What is best for the user?” or “What will make our company the most money?” must be balanced with “Will this be viewed as anticompetitive?” And the increasing weight being placed on the third is evident in Google’s decision-making as it relates to third-party cookies, with ripple effects through the rest of the industry, which has been planning based on promises that were never kept.
