US Accuses Google Of Creating Monopoly In Online Advertising Technology

A prosecutor from the Justice Department stated that the Alphabet's Google controlled competitors and customers to dominate in online advertising technology market. The prosecutor's comments came at the start of the latest antitrust trial of the search giant in Alexandria, VA.

The prosecutors claimed that Google dominated the technological infrastructure responsible for bringing more than 150,000 online ad sales per second on websites, Reuters reported.

In the opening statement of Julia Tarver Wood, a lawyer with the antitrust division of the Justice Department, noted that Google eliminated its competitors by using classic monopoly-building tactics. They include locking customers to use its products, controlling the manner on how transactions are carried out in the online ad market, and through acquisitions.

"Google is not here because they are big, they are here because they used that size to crush competition," said Wood at the start of the trial where U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema is hearing the case without a jury, New York Times reported.

On the other hand, Karen Dunn, the lead attorney of the tech giant, said that the Justice Department together with a coalition of states, grounded their case on "ancient history" where they cited a time when the company was still working on making tools connect to competitors. But things have changed.

According to Dunn, the tools of the tech giant are already interoperable with rivals. She then mentioned the competitors of Google, such as Amazon and Comcast, underscoring that ad spending is shifting to apps and streaming videos as well.

Dunn also noted that the claims made by the Justice Department were similar to the ones mentioned in a recent search monopoly case.

After delivering her opening statement, she immediately left the courtroom and proceeded to help with the debate preparation of Vice President Kamala Harris.

Prosecutors, on the other hand, want to prove that the tech giant used dominant positions in tech in order to prevent publisher from turning to other tools.

An advertising executive from Garnett testified on the matter saying that the company has been using the publisher ad server of Google for approximately 13 years and could not find any other "realistic option."

Google's ad tech tools accounted for $20 billion, or 11% of the company's gross revenue in 2020 and around $1 billion, or 2.6%, of operating profit that year, according to research by Wedbush.

In August, the Justice Department won a ruling against Google in another case over its dominance in online search.

Regulators are going after the biggest tech companies. The Justice Department has also sued Apple over its ecosystem that made difficult for consumers to exit the firm. The Federal Trade Commission has sued Amazon, alleging it of squeezing small businesses, and Meta, for killing rivals when it bought Instagram and WhatsApp.

Amid the trial on Monday, shares in Alphabet, Google's parent company, closed 1.6% lower on Nasdaq at $149.54.