Google adtech faces 6 years of restrictions after antitrust trial
A federal judge's unsealed ruling bars Google from favoring its own adtech across six years of remedies
You'd think a company found guilty of illegally monopolising an entire ad market would face a breakup. Google didn't, but the list of restrictions it's now under is long enough to reshape how online advertising actually works.
The judge overseeing the antitrust case brought against Google by plaintiffs in its advertising technology business unsealed her opinion on remedies, and the big takeaway is what Google dodged: it can retain its ad server, buyer tools, and exchange.
But the one thing it can no longer do is use the tools to discriminate against one another in open web auctions for six years worldwide.
Google can no longer tie its DFP ad server to its AdX exchange through contract terms, and it can't bring back "First Look" or "Last Look", two mechanisms that let AdX see or bid ahead of rival exchanges.
Patrick Briggs, CEO of digital ad agency HubShout, said removing advantages like Last Look could make auctions more trustworthy and lift the broader display ad market's value.
AdX and DFP now have to work with Prebid, the open-source header-bidding technology Google had long avoided integrating with. PubMatic CEO Rajeev Goel, who testified for the Department of Justice, said the change should let rival exchanges compete more fairly, though he warned a differently built integration could create friction, comparing it to needing a new charger for every new device in your house.
Google is now required to allow publishers to receive AdX bids without requiring them to use DFP and provide historical DFP data and AdX bid data for those who want to stop using their service.
According to Measured’s Nick Stoltz, data portability lowers switching costs for a publisher to change the provider.
The most important remedy will be the actual oversight, as a monitor, a technical committee, and Google’s own compliance officer will be given access to Google’s source code, algorithms, and interviews with Google employees.
As Wyatt Fore, a lawyer, noted, such independent monitoring becomes especially important in complicated technology cases, where a company may comply with a court order in a very technical way while failing to follow the spirit of that order. Google claims that they will appeal the decision on the liability issue.
