Google loses again in court.

This ruling deals another blow to the tech giant, which is already facing numerous legal troubles related to antitrust issues.

Google lost the case again. Photo: Bloomberg .

On April 17th (US time), US District Court Judge Leonie Brinkema declared that Alphabet violated antitrust laws in the advertising trading market and the tools the website used to sell advertising space, also known as ad servers.

However, Ms. Brinkema determined that Alphabet did not violate the law in the area of ​​its business dealings with tools used by advertisers to purchase display advertising.

Shares of Google's parent company immediately fell 3.2% as soon as the ruling was announced.

This is the second time in a year that Alphabet has lost an antitrust lawsuit in a US court. A new hearing in Washington early next week will consider remedies after Google was found to have a monopoly in the online search market.

"Google deliberately engaged in a series of anti-competitive practices to gain and maintain a monopoly on the advertising server market," Brinkema wrote in the court ruling.

The judge also found that Google "continued to consolidate its monopolistic power" through anti-competitive policies toward customers and by eliminating certain features.

"Beyond depriving rivals of the ability to compete, this exclusionary behavior significantly harms customers, the competitive process, and ultimately, consumers of information on the web," she wrote.

Since 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice and a group of states have sued Google, alleging that the company illegally monopolizes three separate markets related to the technology used for online display advertising: ad servers, transactions, and networks.

Jonathan Kanter called the ruling a victory for internet freedom. Photo: Bloomberg.

Google announced it will appeal the part of the lawsuit in which it lost. "We disagree with the court's decision regarding publisher tools. They had many options and they chose Google because our advertising technologies are simple, affordable, and effective," said Lee-Anne Mulholland, Google's vice president of legal affairs.

Jonathan Kanter, head of the antitrust division of the U.S. Department of Justice under former President Joe Biden, stated on LinkedIn that the ruling “is a huge victory for antitrust enforcement, the media industry, and a free and open internet.”

Much of the Justice Department’s lawsuit focused on examining Google’s past acquisitions, including DoubleClick, the company that partnered with websites to sell advertising. Judge Brinkema essentially agreed with this finding.

"Google's consolidation of its ad-publisher business through the acquisition of DoubleClick has allowed the company to establish a dominant position in both advertising technologies," she stated in the ruling.

However, when ruling in favor of Google in the advertiser market, Brinkema found that advertisers can choose based on “the perceived return on advertising costs.”

In the lawsuit, a witness, the owner of a beauty tech startup, testified that they switched from Google AdWords to Instagram based on their experience with each platform. This example was cited in the ruling, proving the case in Google's favor.

Source: https://znews.vn/google-lai-thua-tai-toa-post1546773.html