Department of Justice Again Wins Substantial Relief Against Google

A federal court in Virginia granted significant behavioral relief against Google in the Justice Department’s monopolization case, requiring closer integration with rival products, including open-source solutions like Prebid. The ruling aims to open advertising technology markets to greater competition by mandating interoperability and data-sharing requirements. The court also prohibited Google’s self-preferencing bidding behavior and imposed anti-discrimination remedies to address past anticompetitive conduct.

The Justice Department emphasized the ruling as a major victory, with Associate Attorney General Stanley E. Woodward Jr. stating it advances efforts to restore fair competition. Google’s executives, during the remedies trial, repeatedly offered new concessions, including a revised proposed final judgment with additional commitments. The court’s decision rejected Google’s argument that terminating monopolies is not a proper objective in such cases, affirming the need for forward-looking remedies.

As a result of the Department’s efforts, Google agreed to broaden the categories of advertising inventory covered by the final judgment and disclose how its black-box advertising auctions operate. The company also committed to providing new technical support and data to competitors and customers, addressing discriminatory bidding practices in its AdWords tool. These concessions followed extensive scrutiny during the remedies phase of the trial.

The court’s ruling confirmed that remedies must go beyond halting past anticompetitive behavior, imposing structural and behavioral conditions to dismantle Google’s monopoly power. The Justice Department continues reviewing the opinion to determine next steps, while also pursuing additional enforcement actions, including a proposed settlement with KKR & Co. GP LLC for a $250,000 civil penalty.