Another Google Lawsuit Could Reshape the Tech Giant
Google is once again finding itself on the wrong side of a court verdict. A federal judge ruled on Thursday that Google was guilty of violating antitrust laws in its pursuit of maintaining a monopoly. The case brought by the Justice Department and several US states has the potential to reshape the trillion dollar goliath. This has not been the first Google lawsuit this year.
The Verdict
The US District Court of Virginia's Leonie Brinkema ruled that Google was guilty of using its wealth and power to dominate its industry. She argued that Google’s monopoly over the digital advertising space allowed the company to engage in price gouging. Charging business premium prices for its services.
Judge Brinkema said “In addition to depriving rivals of the ability to compete, this exclusionary conduct substantially harmed Google’s publisher customers, the competitive process, and, ultimately, consumers of information on the open web,”
The Justice departments case was divided into three main accusations regarding Google's practices in the online advertising space. The tools that online publishers, such as news websites, use to offer available ad space. Also the tools advertisers use to purchase that space; and the software that manages these transactions.
Brinkema found two of the charges to be true. She ruled that Google illegally built a monopoly over the publisher tools and the software system. Brinkema dismissed the third charge regarding the tools used by advertisers. She concluded the state had not done enough to substantiate this claim.
The Federal Trade Commission (F.T.C) are circling both Google and its compatriot in the online advertising space Meta (Facebook).Therefore we could likely see another Google lawsuit as a result of United States government and FTC look to punish them for their breaches of anti-trust. The Google monopoly we know could have a time limit.
Sources
The New York Times - Google Broke the Law to Keep Its Advertising Monopoly, a Judge Rules
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