Washington Monthly - Court Ruling Against Google Ad-Tech Monopoly Is a Victory for Journalism

Reporter Austin Ahlman discusses the court ruling against Google’s ad-tech monopoly being a major win for journalism and the open internet.

In the Fall of 2020, as local newspapers and national online outlets like BuzzFeed were increasingly laying off reporters or even shutting their doors because of collapsing digital advertising revenues, the Washington Monthly published a package of stories on what to do about the problem. In that package, Phillip Longman, a Monthly senior editor and policy director of the Open Markets Institute, argued that Google’s monopolization of the digital advertising market was the heart of the problem and that the solution was for the federal government to bring an antitrust enforcement action against the company.  

It was the first time any journalist had made that argument (amazing when you consider Google was literally stealing the source of their livelihoods). Many dismissed the idea as hopelessly naive. But in January 2023, the Justice Department charged Google with illegally monopolizing the digital ad tech market. Yesterday, following a three-week trial last September, a federal judge ruled that the government was right. 

In a landmark ruling, Juge Leonie Brinkema of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia found that Google has illegally monopolized several portions of the online advertising market. The decision, along with another decision from last August where Google was found to have unlawfully monopolized the online search market, stands to curtail the immense power of Alphabet, the $1.8 trillion company behind Google.  

That power has been damaging journalism, whose advertising revenue decline has spurred layoffs across the industry. Judge Brinkema directly acknowledged the damage in her opinion, writing that Google’s anti-competitive actions “substantially harmed Google’s publisher customers, the competitive process, and, ultimately, consumers of information on the open web.” 

As the trial proceeds to the remedies phase, which could see a potential breakup of the giant’s advertising businesses, news publishers could receive a long overdue lifeline through increased competition and higher compensation for advertising placements next to their content. 

Read full article here.