Virginia
In response to accusations of unlawful monopoly, Google launches a defense

Alexandria, Virginia – Using witness testimony, Google launched its defense on Friday against claims that it has an illegal monopoly on internet advertising technology, arguing that the market is far more competitive and sophisticated than the federal government has suggested.
The first witness for Google in its antitrust trial in federal court in Alexandria, Scott Sheffer, vice president for worldwide partnerships at the corporation, stated, “The industry has been exceptionally fluid over the last 18 years.”
According to the Justice Department and a group of states, Google created and has illegally maintained a monopoly over the technology that makes it easier for people to buy and sell online advertisements that they view.
Google responds that the government’s lawsuit is unfairly limited to a specific class of online advertisements, namely the rectangular ones that show up at the top and right of webpages. Google’s attorneys argued in their opening statement that the Supreme Court had cautioned judges against intervening in cases involving quickly developing technology, such as the one Sheffer described, due to the possibility of mistakes or unforeseen repercussions.
According to Google, defining the market so narrowly misses the competition it confronts from companies that provide advertisers with online consumer reach, such as social networking platforms, Amazon, streaming TV providers, and others.
Attorneys from the Justice Department questioned witnesses for two weeks before wrapping up their case on Friday afternoon. During that time, they described how computerized ad exchanges run auctions in a matter of milliseconds to decide which advertisements are shown to which customers and at what price.
According to the department, the auctions are subtly altered to favor Google over potential rivals and to keep publishers from earning as much money as they otherwise could from selling their ad space.
Additionally, it claims that Google is able to retain 36 cents of every dollar spent on advertisements when its technology is applied to every aspect of the transaction, which amounts to billions of dollars every day.
According to executives at media businesses like News Corp., which owns Fox News and the Wall Street Journal, and Gannett, which publishes USA Today, Google dominates the market with technology that is used by both advertisers and publishers to purchase advertising space. Because the products are interconnected, publishers who wish to have simple access to Google’s extensive advertiser cache must use its technology.
In its complaint from the previous year, the government stated that in order to challenge Google’s dominance, it should be compelled to sell off at least the portion of its company that serves publishers.
Sheffer detailed how Google’s technologies have changed over time and how it verifies publishers and advertisers to protect against fraud and malware in his testimony on Friday.
Just one month after a District of Columbia judge ruled that Google’s main product, its widely used search engine, was an unlawful monopoly, the trial got underway on September 9. To ascertain what remedies, if any, the judge may impose, that the trial is still underway.
Though it does not bring in as much money for Google as its search engine, the ad technology in dispute in the Virginia lawsuit is estimated to bring in tens of billions of dollars yearly.
Regulators in other countries have also charged Google with anti-competitive behavior. However, the corporation gained a win this week when an EU court reversed a five-year-old antitrust fine of 1.49 billion euros ($1.66 billion), which had been directed at a different area of the company’s online advertising business.
-
Local News1 week ago
The Roanoke family will request additional Alzheimer’s resources from the General Assembly
-
Local News2 weeks ago
The Roanoke City Council selects applicants for a vacant seat
-
Local News2 weeks ago
Firefighters in Lynchburg save a deer from a frozen lake
-
Local News2 weeks ago
Renovations at the Fieldale Recreation Center continue after a $1.5 million grant is denied
-
Local News2 weeks ago
The dearth of farm veterinarians in Virginia is lessened via a phone app
-
Local News1 week ago
The first diaper bank campaign in Southwest Virginia is started by Huddle Up Moms
-
Local News4 days ago
Alleghany Highlands Public Schools deals with the gas leak
-
Local News6 days ago
The executive vice president of Carter Bank & Trust passes away
Leave a Reply