The General Director of Google Sundar Pichai testifies before the court committee in the Rayburn House office building on December 11, 2018 in Washington.
Alex Wong | Getty images
Google Antitrust misfortunes are still approaching, just like the company is trying to prepare for the future dominated by artificial intelligence.
Federal judge on Thursday he ruled The fact that Google had illegal monoples on internet advertising markets because of its position between buyers and sellers.
The ruling that took place after the September trial in Alexandria in Virginia is the second large antitrust blow to Google in less than a year. In August, the judge specified The company had a monopoly on its basic search market on the Internet, the best significant antitrust ruling in the technology industry from time thing against Microsoft Over 20 years ago.
Google is in a particularly uncertain place, because he tries to defend his main activity in court at the same time, while repelling the attack of new competition due to the appearance of generative artificial intelligence, in particular ChatgPT OPENAI, which offers users alternative ways to search for information. The increase in revenues has cooled in recent years, and Google is also in the face of the additional potential for slowing down advertising expenses due to economic concerns President Donald Trump sweeping new tariffs.
Alphabet's parent company reports the results in the first quarter next week. The price of Alphabet shares fell on Thursday by over 1% and fell by 20% this year.
In the Thursday ruling of the US District Leon Bryrkem said that Google's practices “basically damaged” publishers and users on the Internet. The trial included 39 live witnesses, testimonies from additional 20 witnesses and hundreds of exhibits.
Judge Brinkae said that Google unlawfully controls two parts of the advertising technology market: Publisher's advertising server market and advertising exchange market. Brinkema rejected the third part of the case, specifying that the tools used for general display advertising cannot be clearly defined as its own Google market. In particular, the judge quoted the shopping of DoubleClick and Admeld and said that the government did not show that “the acquisitions were anti -competitive.”
“We won half of this case and we will appeal from the second half,” said Lee-Anne Mulholland, Google Vice President or regulatory matters in a statement by e-mail. “We do not agree with the court's decision regarding our publishers' tools. Publishers have many options and choose Google, because our advertising tools are simple, inexpensive and effective.”
Prosecutor General Pam Bondi said in a press release of the state that the decision is a “breakthrough victory in the ongoing fight to stop Google from the monopolization of the digital public square.”
Potential advertising
If the regulatory authorities force the company to sell some of the advertising activity, as the Department of Justice asked, it can open opportunities for smaller players and other competitors to fill the emptiness and increase valuable market share. Amazon In recent years, he has been developing its advertising activity.
Meanwhile, Google still defends himself against the claims that his search was acting as a monopoly, creating strong entry barriers and a feedback loop that maintained its dominance. Google said in August, immediately after the search for the search case, that he would appeal what means that the case can play in court for years, even after determining the remedies.
The Remedies process, which will show consequences, start next week. The Department of Justice strives to break the Google Chrome browser and eliminates exclusive contracts, such as a contract with Apple Search on iPhones. It is expected that the judge issued a decision until August.
General Director of Google Sundar Pichai (L) and CEO of Apple Tim Cook (R) listen to how US President Joe Biden speaks during a round table with American and Indian business leaders in the eastern peace of the White House on June 23, 2023 in Washington.
Anna Moneymaker Getty images
After the ruling of the advertising market on Thursday, Andrew Frank Gartner said that Google's “conflicts of interest” are visible about the market operation.
“The structure was decades,” said Frank, adding that “this failure would be a significant challenge, especially since lawyers are not system architects.”
However, the uncertainty, which is associated with a potentially many years of appeal process, means that many publishers and advertisers will be waiting to see how they are shaken before making large decisions, considering how much they rely on Google technology.
“Google will have encouragement to encourage more competition, relaxing some restrictions in some media that you controls it, and YouTube is one of them,” said Frank. “These types of encouragement can create opportunities for other publishers or advertising players.”
The date of the remedies process has not been determined.
Damian Rollison, senior director of market insight into the Social Marketing Platform, said that revenues from the case of the advertising market can be more dramatic than the impact of the search matter.
“The company may lose much more in the material, if its advertising activity, a long source of revenues, is broken,” said Rollison We -mail. “While divisions such as Chrome are more strategically important.”
TO WATCH: The US judge believes that Google has illegal online advertising monoples
