DOJ aims to break up Google’s ad business as antitrust case resumes

In his opening arguments in the Adtech case, the government’s advertising manager was intimately linked to antitrust behavior, and his proposed remedies would pass under the standard site of Mehta. Government lawyers argue that remedies must be designed to restore competition, and Google iron grip on online display ads can only be resolved in one way. “Nothing less than a structural disinvestment is enough to bring a significant change,” said the wood of Julia Tarver of the Doj.

Google already seen

Google has made its own remedies proposal, which is really only a formality. Google does not plan to accept a penalty and call on the case after the appeal phase. The company’s proposal is just shy by nothing, which suggests that it could make the tenders in real time visible for all auctions and put an end to the unified pricing rules to allow publishers to define different stages. Google also promises not to use the dynamics of “first look” and “last look”, which gave Google a major advantage in the auctions. The company ended this practice several years ago, but it will not start again within the framework of the proposal.

Google does not go exactly its arguments in this case – you could almost copy and paste “Chrome” instead of “ad managerials” to return directly to Google’s position in the search case. According to Google Council Karen Dunn, the government’s proposals are extreme and will lead to “disturbances and damage” to the advertising industry by closing Google. The company considers that it has made enough changes of its own will to solve the problems mentioned in the case.

Google has also continued to rely on the AI ​​explosion to crop the case. Since the accusations were filed in 2023, the generator has become the main objective of countless companies. In the case of research, Google argued that the AI ​​reshaped the way people find information online and, therefore, the structural remedies were not necessary. Likewise, Google now says that AI’s advertising tools like those developed by Meta and Perplexity show that digital advertising is always a dynamic market. Google lawyers have suggested that the DoJ is trying to rework an industry that has already been transformed.

It will take months before learning what Brinkema has decided, but Google’s headaches are not over even if they arise in this case. The European Union also goes after the company’s advertising activities, recently issuing a heavy fine. The regulators claim that a break is on the table in Europe if Google does not offer a proposal to combat the domination of its market.