Judge rules Google illegally monopolized adtech, opening door to potential breakup

A federal judge has found that Google has violated antitrust laws by “willfully acquiring and maintaining monopoly power” in the advertising technology market, rounding out a two-year saga after the U.S. and eight states filed its initial complaints against the Alphabet-owned company. The court will set a briefing schedule and hearing date to determine appropriate remedies for the antitrust violations, per a Thursday filing. The remedies could include forcing Google to break up its advertising business, like selling its Google Ad Manager, which includes the AdX ad exchange and DFP (DoubleClick for Publishers), the ad server used for publishers. Or the courts could force behavioral remedies that would allow Google to keep its business intact, but would impose restrictions to ensure fair competition, like prohibiting Google from prioritizing its own exchange or demand in auctions. In a separate antitrust case, another federal judge last year found that Google illegally monopolized th ... Read full article.