jma๐ ๋ฆฌํธ์ํจ
The Google ad tech remedies trial kicked off this week. The remedy isnโt just about the future (and effectiveness) of antitrust enforcement. Itโs also about who controls the future of the internet--whether the web will work for content creators, publishers, and independent voices.
Advertising underwrites content creation, free expression, independent journalism, and the exchange of viewpoints on the internet. Whether youโre a recipe blogger or a major newspaper, you rely on ad tech to help monetize your website and keep your business running. When one firm controls so much of the basic infrastructure of the open internet, it can control who survives and what gets funded. The second order consequences of that kind of control are extraordinary.
In April, a federal court ruled that Google illegally monopolized key parts of the ad tech stack. It used its dominance to eliminate competition, strip customers of choice, and enrich itself to the tune of billions of dollars while amassing data about internet users, advertisers, bids, and more.
Now, the government and Google are locked in a dispute about how to fix it. DOJ is asking for divestitures of key parts of this tech stack, behavioral relief, data transparency measures, anti-retaliation provisions, and disgorgement of future profits into an escrow to help fix the badly broken publisher side of the market. Google is seeking an order that tells it to go and sin no more.
The stakes are high. For years, newsrooms have confronted a painful economic reality, including changes to search rankings and AI overviews that have caused traffic to dwindle even as their content gets scraped to train artificial intelligence products and services. Advertising can help support a pluralistic, more sustainable media ecosystemโbut only if the markets for buying and selling digital ads are vibrant, open, and competitive.
This one is worth watching. You can learn more about the case and see the complaint, liability decision, proposed remedies, and trial exhibits here โฌ๏ธ justice.gov/atr/case/us-anโฆ
Doha Mekki@dohamekki
๐จIn September, @JusticeATR tried a second sweeping antitrust case against Google. We alleged that Google monopolized the technologies that support the open internet and, as a practical matter, fund its expansion. Today, a federal judge agreed! ๐บ๐ธ Lots to unpack but the real-life superheroes @justiceatr just keep delivering wins for the American people. Congratulations to the extraordinary team that won this historic case! ๐๐๐
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