TLDR: Digital advertising is the business model of the internet. The Department of Justice claims that Google controls at least 87% of the U.S. ad tech market, and just finished making a solid case that Google knowingly exploits its market dominance to entrench its monopoly, disregarding harmful effects on publishers, competitors and ultimately news ecosystems and online consumers across the country.
▶️ Want to hear insights from the experts & listen to frank discussion about the trial so far? Catch yesterday’s press briefing here.
PICK UP THE PACE: Yesterday Judge Brinkema showed Google exactly why the First Circuit is called the Rocket Docket, telling its legal team to cut redundant witnesses from their lineup, sparing all of us several days of no-value-added corporate spin to keep the focus on serious allegations of massive, decade-plus-long criminality. That means the trial could end sooner than expected.
📩 However long the trial lasts, we’ll be delivering quick roundups summarizing the state of play, latest revelations & future implications throughout. Drop us a line at [email protected] with feedback or flags.
Market Competition & Consumer Protection
As DOJ lawyers wrapped up their case, they called up the author of a slam dunk discovery find – an email in which a Google employee compares the company’s dominance of the ad exchange market to “if Goldman or Citibank owned the New York Stock Exchange.”
Fact check: Google claims it never impeded innovation. NOT TRUE. For evidence, look to Verizon’s and other major and medium players’ decisions under duress to exit the ad tech market.
Takeaway: “If Google wins this case, we’ll continue to see the decline of the open web … the loss of that ecosystem will make the market increasingly vertical and siloed between walled gardens.” – Lee Hepner, American Civil Liberties Project
Read this: Google’s Monopoly Harms the Open Web, Worsens Inflation, Experts Argue (Kate Irwin, PCMag)
Share this: https://x.com/BigTechOnTrial/status/1837164556235460951
Future of Journalism
While the trial’s revelations about Google’s decimation of journalism may come as a shock to the public, they’re less of a surprise to the pros. “I wish I was more surprised by any of these emails and excerpts. The experience of working with Google’s advantage for nearly 10 years now conditioned me to expect this in its entirety,” said Justin Wohl, CRO of Snopes.com, regarding “the exposure of Google’s efforts to line its own pockets at the expense of publishers and others in the digital ad ecosystem.”
Read this: Publishers Feel Seen At The Google Ad Tech Antitrust Trial (Anthony Vargas, AdExchanger)
Share this: https://x.com/MailOnline/status/1836528459293618523
Google’s Illegal Behavior
This week, testimony revealed that “Google implemented a ‘Communicate with Care’ policy in which employees were instructed to add company lawyers to sensitive emails so they could be marked as ‘privileged’ and exempt from disclosure to government regulators .. Judge Brinkema called Google’s policies on retention of documents ‘absolutely inappropriate and improper.’”
EXCUSE OF THE WEEK: The Google employee who made that devastatingly accurate New York Stock Exchange comparison asked the judge to chalk his comment up to “late night, jet-lagged ramblings.”
Read this: At Google antitrust trial, documents say one thing. The tech giant’s witnesses say different (Matthew Barakat, AP)
Share this: https://x.com/econliberties/status/1836843451339452532
Go-to resources
- US v Google Ads
- Big Tech on Trial (Matt Stoller/Tom Blakely/Lee Hepner/American Economic Liberties Project)
- Trial Updates (Arielle Garcia/Check My Ads/DCN)
- Google Ad Tech Monopoly Trial Coverage (Karina Montoya/Center for Journalism & Liberty)