Google holds Illegal 'monopoly power', rules US federal judge

In a blow dealt to the tech giant Google, a federal judge on Thursday (April 17) ruled the company has illegally built “monopoly power” with its web advertising business. U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema in Alexandria, Virginia, siding with the Justice Department wrote that Google violated U.S. antitrust law by “willfully acquiring and maintaining monopoly power” over web advertising.

The ruling marks the US government’s second major court victory over Google in recent months. It could now force Google to give breakup of advertising products on the insistence of prosecutors, according to news agency Reuters.

Brinkema said Google illegally tied together its products - ad server and ad exchange - to maintain its monopoly.

“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,” she wrote in her order.

But Google since the lawsuit was filed in 2023 has maintained that Justice Department’s argument would “slow innovation, raise advertising fees, and make it harder for thousands of small businesses and publishers to grow,” 

This is Google’s second major antitrust loss in the last few months. In December 2023 a federal jury had declared that Google’s proprietary app store is also an illegal monopoly.

The regulators having been pushing to check the power of large tech companies including Apple, Meta and Amazon in addition to Google parent Alphabet.