The U.S. Department of Justice on Monday delivered closing arguments alleging that Google illegally dominates the online advertising market, aiming for its second victory against the company in an antitrust case.
The closing arguments cap a 15-day trial in September in which the court tried to prove that Google had monopolized and attempted to dominate the ad server market for publishers’ and advertisers’ ad networks, and the ad exchange market for buyers and sellers who sit on it.
Google argued that prosecutors were bending U.S. antitrust law to force the company to comply with competitors’ services and that the case focuses on recent events when Google was still building and improving its services.
Publishers testified in court that they couldn’t switch away from Google, even if the company introduced features they didn’t like, because they had no other way to access the vast advertising demand within Google’s ad network.
Witnesses said News Corp estimated in 2017 that it would have lost at least $9 million in advertising revenue that year if it had switched to another provider.
If U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema finds Google broke the law, she will consider prosecutors’ requests to force Google to sell at least its publisher ad server and Google Ad Manager, the platform that runs its ad exchange.
Google had proposed to sell its ad exchange this year to end an EU antitrust case, but European publishers rejected the proposal as inadequate, Reuters first reported in September. Analysts see the ad tech case as less financial risky than the suit in which a judge ruled Google maintained an illegal monopoly in online search and prosecutors argued the company should be forced to sell its Chrome browser.
