DOJ pushes Google to break up its ad business

The U.S. Department of Justice is proposing that Google sell two of its advertising products to restore competition in the ad tech space, according to a new filing. The proposal comes after a judge found Google guilty of “willfully acquiring and maintaining monopoly power” in the digital ad space last month.

The DOJ’s filing notes that Google should divest its ad exchange product AdX, along with a “phased” sale of DoubleClick for Publishers, an ad server for website publishers. The department also wants Google to avoid running an ad exchange for 10 years post the sale of AdX. The DOJ alleged Google had “ensured that publishers would lose significant revenue if they did not use AdX.” It also accused the search giant of creating a monopoly by integrating AdX and DFP, forcing websites to use Google’s publisher product.

The proposal also directed Google to open up its ad buying tools, including AdWords, and have them work with all third-party ad tech products “on non-discriminatory terms with respect to bidding, matching, placement of ads, or provision of information, except at the express instruction of an advertiser.” The DOJ stated that this comprehensive set of remedies is necessary to terminate Google’s monopolies and reintroduce competition into the ad exchange and publisher ad server markets.

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In response to these proposals, Google’s VP of regulatory affairs, Lee-Anne Mulholland, said that the measures would harm publishers and advertisers. She stated that the DOJ’s additional proposals to force a divestiture of Google’s ad tech tools go beyond the Court’s findings, have no basis in law, and would harm publishers and advertisers.

Google proposed its own set of remedies in a separate filing, including making AdX real-time bids available to all third-party ad servers and keeping Google’s actions under an independent compliance observer for three years. Google is facing antitrust pressure from multiple directions, including a separate case where the U.S. wants the company to sell its Chrome browser after a judge found the company to be a monopoly in the online search market.

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