GOOGLE ACTED ILLEGALLY by developing and maintaining a monopoly in the online ad market, a US federal judge has ruled.

Today’s ruling is the second major blow to Google’s business model dealt by a US court in the last 12 months, after another judge found the tech giant had a monopoly on internet search in August last year. 

Delivering the ruling in Virginia today, Judge Leonie Brinkema said: “Google has willfully engaged in a series of anticompetitive acts to acquire and maintain monopoly power in the publisher ad server and ad exchange markets for open-web display advertising.”

“Google further entrenched its monopoly power by imposing anticompetitive policies on its customers and eliminating desirable product features,” she wrote.

“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.”

Judge Brinkema also dismissed part of the lawsuit. 

Today’s judgement and the one made last year are likely to have significant impacts on Google’s structure. 

Brinkema now has the opportunity to force changes at Google while the judge in the search monopoly case is currently considering breaking up the company.

Brinkema gave attorneys on both sides of the case seven days to submit a schedule for arguing their positions regarding what remedies should be imposed on Google.

Ordering Google to spin off its ad publisher and exchange operations is likely to be among the plaintiffs’ proposals.

Google has said it will appeal today’s decision, which will prolong a process that could go all the way to the US Supreme Court.

“We won half of this case and we will appeal the other half,” Google vice president of regulatory affairs Lee-Anne Mulholland said in a statement.

The advertising case was brought by the US Justice Department under the Biden administration in conjunction with a number of other states. 

The lawsuit had argued that Google used its size to “crush” its competition by illegally dominating three sectors of digital advertising – publisher ad servers, advertiser tools, and ad exchanges.

The lawsuits against Google were part of a push by the Biden administration to rein in the power of the largest tech companies in the US. The Justice Department also took cases against Apple, Amazon and Meta. 

With reporting from AFP