The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is pushing for Alphabet, Google’s parent company, to divest parts of its digital advertising business, deemed an illegal monopoly.
On Friday, the DOJ told a federal judge in Virginia that selling Google’s ad exchange and publisher ad server is essential to curb its market dominance.
The ad exchange is the largest platform for online ad space bidding, while the ad server enables publishers to list and sell website ads. The DOJ also wants Google to share real-time ad bidding data with competitors.
U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema scheduled a trial for September 22 to review the DOJ’s proposals and Google’s response.
Last month, Brinkema ruled that Google deliberately monopolized the ad market through acquisitions and by linking its ad exchange and server to exclude competitors and lower prices. However, she dismissed claims that Google unfairly controlled advertiser ad networks.
Google denies the allegations, arguing it competes with Meta, Amazon, and TikTok for ad revenue and is open to sharing ad exchange data but opposes divestitures.
Lee-Anne Mulholland, Google’s regulatory affairs head, called the DOJ’s divestiture demands baseless and harmful to publishers and advertisers. This marks Alphabet’s third recent antitrust loss.
Last year, a judge ruled Google monopolized search by paying Apple over $20 billion annually to be the default browser, prompting DOJ demands to sell Chrome and share search data.
At a Washington court hearing, CEO Sundar Pichai called these measures extreme, arguing they would compromise intellectual property and user privacy.
Additionally, a San Francisco judge ordered Alphabet to open its Android system to competitors after finding the Google Play Store stifled app competition and charged excessive fees.
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
The DOJ’s push to force Google to sell parts of its ad tech business is a high-stakes effort to break a monopoly that has shaped the digital advertising market for over a decade.
While the court’s ruling confirms Google’s anticompetitive practices, the proposed remedies—divestitures and data sharing—face fierce opposition from Google, which warns of harm to publishers, advertisers, and innovation.
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