Google’s Ad Business Is a Monopoly, US Federal Court Rules

Google’s advertising business, which generates key revenue for the tech giant, is an illegal monopoly, a federal judge ruled on Thursday.

In the ruling, US District Judge Leonie Brinkema wrote that Google violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act, a landmark antitrust law from 1890. 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,” Brinkema wrote.

The ruling marks the second major loss Google has faced in less than a year. Last August, a judge declared Google to be operating an illegal monopoly in online search. As with that ruling, Google plans to appeal the decision.

“We won half of this case and we will appeal the other half,” Google’s vice president of regulatory affairs, Lee-Anne Mulholland, said in a statement. “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 win Mulholland is referring to is an earlier court decision regarding Google and DoubleClick, a company that offered online-ad tools. In that ruling, a court found that Google’s 2007 acquisition of DoubleClick for $3.1 billion didn’t harm competition. 

In a statement, Attorney General Pamela Bondi and Assistant Attorney General Abigail Slater praised Thursday’s decision and attacked Google for harming the “digital public square.” Statements centered around an abuse of monopoly power by Google and how that allegedly relates to free speech and the censoring of American voices. Oddly, the ruling itself doesn’t mention the phrase “free speech” once. The term “censorship” was used once but in a footnote related to defining Google as a worldwide company, except in countries like China and Iran, where there’s significant censorship of the internet.

“The Court’s ruling is clear: Google is a monopolist and has abused its monopoly power,” said Slater. “Google’s unlawful dominance allows them to censor and even deplatform American voices. And at the same time, Google destroyed and hid information that exposed its illegal conduct. Today’s opinion confirms Google’s controlling hand over online advertising and, increasingly, the internet itself. I am extraordinarily proud of the dedicated public servants whose tireless efforts led to today’s decision.”

As noted by Bloomberg, the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee is looking into communications between Google and the Biden administration, which Republicans have alleged involved efforts at stifling free speech. The administration pushed companies including Meta to remove specific posts about COVID-19. Republicans have called this a move to censor conservatives, but the administration said the posts were spreading hazardous misinformation during the deadly pandemic. Google has said it enforces its policies independently, “rooted in free expression.”

The case involving Google’s ad business was brought by the 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 appropriate remedies. It’s unclear how soon that date might be. Google’s appeal could draw things out over the course of months or years.

Google’s large ecosystem of businesses has been under the microscope in recent years. It’s not only the company’s search dominance and its position in the online-ad market: In 2023 a US judge ruled that Google was operating an illegal monopoly with its Play Store on Android. The tech giant appealed that decision.

Other major tech companies have also drawn the attention of federal regulators. In 2023, the US Federal Trade Commission and 17 states sued Amazon, alleging that the company was monopolizing online sales. More recently, Meta is in court this week over FTC antitrust allegations involving the company’s acquisition of Instagram and WhatsApp.

Google’s online advertising arm is big business. In the fourth quarter of 2024, it brought in $72.4 billion, the bulk of Google’s overall revenue. Google currently maintains 90% market share in online search, according to GlobalStats. That search dominance helps it sell advertising against user data. Google also controls an online ads market where businesses can bid for placement tied to keywords. This effectively makes the company both the owner of the biggest internet highway, where most traffic flows, and the billboard operator.

In her ruling, Brinkema said Google applied “coercive pressure” to ensure publishers used DoubleClick tools to place bids on the Google Ad Exchange network, including lowering bids from publishers that used other ad exchanges and creating Unified Pricing Rules, meaning publishers couldn’t put a higher “price floor” on Google AdX compared with other exchanges.