The US tech behemoth Google acted illegally to maintain its dominant position in the advertising market, a US judge ruled on Thursday.
Although the decision came in a courtroom in Virginia, it will further complicate Google’s position in the European Union.
Judge Leonie Brinkema ruled that Google broke antitrust law in how the company operated its highly lucrative advertisement exchange service, which auctions online ad space off to the highest bidder.
This decision is expected to complicate Google’s operations in the EU, where a €2.42 billion fine was confirmed by the Court of Justice in September over illegally preferencing in Google’s comparison shopping services.
The Google shopping case, dubbed by some “the mother of all antitrust battles” in the EU, helped prompt the creation of the EU’s landmark online competition legislation, the Digital Markets Act (DMA), in 2022.
Enforcement actions against Google in Europe remain ongoing, and a coalition of other tech companies earlier this month urged the European Commission to fully enforce the DMA against Google.
The Commission’s enforcement of the DMA is overdue, prompting allegations of stalling it in face of Trump’s threat of retaliatory tariffs negotiations.
Thursday’s ruling by a US federal judge in Virginia could increase pressure on the Commission to demand changes in Google’s operations within the EU’s single market.
The Commission found in June 2023 that Google might have favoured its own exchange tool, AdX. Google is also facing a €4.125 billion fine in a legal battle with the Commission on abuse of dominant position for its mobile operating system Android.
Lee-Anne Mulholland, vice president in charge of regulatory affairs at Google, told Euractiv that the company disagrees with the court’s ruling on Thursday and plans to appeal the decision.
The decision is the second time a US judge has ruled that Google broke the law, after Judge Amit Mehta for the District Court of Columbia ruled that Google operated as an illegal monopoly in the search engine and online advertising markets.
In both cases, the remedies ordered by the courts could include breaking up the tech giant by forcing Google to divest parts of its businesses.
Claudie Moreau contributed to the reporting.
(bts)