US Justice Department Calls for Google to Divest Ad Tools After Court Ruling

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has called for Google to divest key components of its digital advertising business, including its AdX marketplace and DFP ad-serving platform, following a federal judge’s determination that the tech giant unlawfully maintained monopolies in critical areas of the online ad industry.

In a court filing submitted late Monday, the DOJ argued that such divestitures are essential to dismantle Google’s dominance and restore competition in the markets for ad exchanges and publisher ad servers, per Reuters. The filing comes after U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema ruled last month that Google had “willfully acquired and maintained monopoly power” in those markets, marking another major antitrust setback for the Alphabet Inc.-owned company.

Read more: Google Faces Remedies Trial in Ad Tech Antitrust Case, Set for September

Judge Brinkema, who sits in Alexandria, Virginia, scheduled a trial for September to determine the appropriate remedies, following a hearing last week where both the DOJ and Google presented their positions on how to address the company’s market power. According to Reuters, this case is one of several antitrust battles Google is facing, including a previous judgment that found the company had an illegal monopoly in online search.

The DOJ’s proposed actions would force Google to part with AdX, a real-time marketplace where publishers can sell unclaimed advertising space, and DFP, a platform used by websites to manage and deliver their digital ad inventory. Together, these tools have long formed a central part of Google’s digital advertising infrastructure and revenue generation system.

Reuters notes that Google had previously attempted to resolve a similar antitrust investigation in the European Union by offering to sell AdX, but that effort fell flat when European publishers deemed the concession inadequate.

Source: Reuters