Bipartisan Coalition of AGs Sued Google for Monopolies that Hurt Consumers and Small Businesses
Chicago – Attorney General Kwame Raoul today announced a court victory after the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia found that Google has violated the law by maintaining illegal monopolies in the digital advertising technology industry, stifling competition and harming website publishers, advertisers and consumers. Attorney General Raoul, as part of a bipartisan coalition of 17 attorneys general, joined the Department of Justice (DOJ) in filing a lawsuit against Google in 2023, seeking to stop Google’s anticompetitive conduct that threatens markets in the online advertising industry.
“Google has created an environment in the digital world that has caused harm to online publishers and advertisers by weakening a free and open internet,” Raoul said. “Google has maintained its monopolies in digital advertising technologies for too long, and I am pleased that the court found the company liable for its unlawful actions.”
The coalition’s lawsuit alleges that Google’s market power enables the company to control nearly every aspect of online ad sales, allowing it to extract higher fees from advertisers while paying lower amounts to publishers for their ad space. This conduct hurts consumers and web publishers by making it harder for websites to make enough money on their advertising inventory, preventing them from offering internet users content for free, without subscriptions, paywalls, or alternative forms of monetization.
Today’s decision, issued by Judge Leonie Brinkema of the Eastern District of Virginia, found Google liable for violating antitrust law by willfully acquiring and maintaining monopolies in the publisher ad server and ad exchange markets for open-web display advertising. The judge also found Google liable for unlawfully tying together its publisher ad server and its ad exchange, and that Google harmed competition, its own customers and internet users by imposing anticompetitive policies that reduced quality and increased prices.
A second phase of the trial to determine remedies for Google’s conduct will take place at a later date.
Joining Raoul and the DOJ in the lawsuit are the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Virginia, Washington and West Virginia.
