Google found itself on the wrong side of an antitrust ruling for the second time in a year, this time for its ad tech monopolization.
Judge Leonie Brinkema concluded in her decision that Google used its market power to suffocate competition and publishers’ bottom lines without regard for the product quality it was serving.
“Google further entrenched its monopoly power by imposing anticompetitive policies on its customers and eliminating desirable features,” Brinkema wrote. “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.”
Marketers believe this could be a watershed moment for the future of the digital advertising industry. Here are three of the biggest takeaways from the ruling, with an eye on the path forward.
“This ruling is just the starting gun,” says Attain President and COO Ben Kartzman. “The real question now is: What comes next? Does Google spin out its ad exchange? Do parts of Ad Manager get sold off or shut down altogether? The implications are massive for advertisers and publishers.”
