Google aims to dodge breakup of ad business as antitrust trial wraps

Audio By Carbonatix

Enlarge

By Jody Godoy

(Reuters) -Alphabet’s Google will make its final plea to avoid a breakup of its advertising technology business in a U.S. court on Friday, as the Department of Justice’s antitrust case draws to a close.

Google has so far come away largely unscathed from a bipartisan government legal crackdown on the dominance of Big Tech – a push that began during the first term of President Donald Trump.

But that could change, depending on what U.S. District Court Judge Leonie Brinkema in Alexandria, Virginia, decides. 

Brinkema ruled in April that Google holds two illegal ad tech monopolies, and is now considering what the company must do to restore competition. The DOJ and a coalition of states have asked the judge to make Google sell its ad exchange, AdX, where online publishers pay Google a 20% fee to sell ads in auctions that happen instantly when users load websites.

At an 11-day trial that began in September, DOJ attorneys sought to convince Brinkema that nothing short of a forced sale would keep Google from developing new tactics to hamper competition.

Google tried to show that a breakup would be technically difficult, resulting in a long and painful transition that would hurt customers.

The closing arguments on Friday mark the end of evidentiary hearings in Google’s years-long battle with the DOJ over its dominance in online advertising and search.

Next, the fight will shift to appeals courts, a process that could take years.

Google has said it will appeal Brinkema’s monopoly ruling. The company also plans to challenge a ruling issued by a Washington-based judge that it holds illegal monopolies in online search and related advertising. In that case, Google avoided a forced sale of its Chrome browser, but was ordered to share data with competitors.

The U.S. still has antitrust cases pending against Meta Platforms, Amazon and Apple.

(Reporting by Jody Godoy in Washington; Editing by Matthew Lewis)