Google’s ad tech empire faces its moment of truth

Closing arguments in the U.S. Justice Department’s versus Google’s ad tech case were heard on Friday (Nov. 21), marking the end of a two-year legal saga, and the start of an even more consequential one for the open web economy.

Judge Leonie Brinkema has already ruled that Google illegally monopolized publisher ad servers and ad exchanges. What she decides next will determine whether the company keeps its core infrastructure for monetizing the open web, i.e., its ad server DoubleClick For Publishers and ad exchange AdX, or is forced to give them up.

Optimists see a bright new dawn on the horizon, although pessimists some will point to recent similar cases, and proclaim, “What’s the point?” especially in an era of AI – ironically, the latter point is kind of a pillar of the Google defense argument.

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