Google's Advertising Business Is a Monopoly, US Federal Court Rules

Google's advertising business, a key piece of revenue for the tech giant, is an illegal monopoly, US District Judge Leonie Brinkema ruled on Thursday. In the memorandum opinion, the court writes that Google has violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act, a landmark antitrust law from 1890. The ruling says Google broke the law "by willfully acquiring and maintaining monopoly power in the open-web display publisher ad server market and the open-web display ad exchange market." When asked for comment, Lee-Anne Mulholland, Google's vice president of regulatory affairs told CNET via email, "We won half of this case and we will appeal the other half...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." The case was brought by US federal government and a coalition of 17 states. The next step is for the court to set a hearing date to begin discussions over "approp ... Read full article.