Google to Appeal Ruling in Advertising Technology Case

Google reportedly said Friday (April 18) that it will appeal a judge’s ruling announced Thursday (April 17) that the company holds an illegal monopoly on online advertising technology.

The company said the judge delivered a “mixed decision” in which she said the Justice Department failed to show that Google’s advertising tools or acquisitions of DoubleClick and AdMeld were anticompetitive but also said Google’s publisher tools exclude rivals, thereby violating antitrust laws, Reuters reported Friday.

Google’s vice president for regulatory affairs, Lee-Anne Mulholland, said in a statement provided to PYMNTS Thursday that the company would appeal the half of the case that it did not win.

“We won half of this case and we will appeal the other half,” Mulholland said in the statement. “The Court found that our advertiser tools and our acquisitions, such as DoubleClick, don’t harm competition. We disagree with the Court’s decision regarding our publisher tools. Publishers have many options and they choose Google because our ad tech tools are simple, affordable and effective.”

In the decision announced Thursday, Judge Leonie Brinkema found Google had violated the law to establish its dominance in the online advertising system.

The Department of Justice and a group of states had sued the company, claiming that its monopoly in advertising technology (AdTech) helped Google charge higher prices and take a larger portion of each sale.

Google at trial had offered up expert testimony that regulators ignored the wider scope of competition faced by Google.

“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,” Brinkema said, while also dismissing one portion of the government’s case.

The Department of Justice said in a Thursday press release that the court held that Google violated antitrust law by monopolizing open-web digital advertising markets.

“This is a landmark victory in the ongoing fight to stop Google from monopolizing the digital public square,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in the release. “This Department of Justice will continue taking bold legal action to protect the American people from encroachments on free speech and free markets by tech companies.”