The US Department of Justice is proposing to force Google to sell two of its core advertising products — AdX and DoubleClick for Publishers. This should restore competition in the ad technology market. The proposal came after a court found the company guilty of "willfully acquiring and maintaining monopoly power" in the digital advertising market, writes TechCrunch.
Google must phase out DoubleClick and exit AdX entirely. In addition, companies may be prohibited from operating ad exchanges for 10 years after the sale of AdX. There is also a requirement to open access to Google's advertising tools, including AdWords, to third-party systems on "non-discriminatory terms."
The Justice Department alleges that Google forced publishers to lose revenue if they did not use AdX and artificially bundled AdX with DoubleClick for Publishers to promote its own product.
"This comprehensive set of remedies—including divestiture of Google’s unlawfully obtained monopolies and the products that were the principal instruments of Google’s illegal scheme—is necessary to terminate Google’s monopolies, deny Google the fruits of its violations, reintroduce competition into the ad exchange and publisher ad server markets, and guard against reoccurrence in the future," the agency said in a statement.
Google, in turn, criticized the requirements. According to Vice President of Regulatory Affairs Leigh-Ann Mulholland, the Justice Department's proposals "have basis in law" and "would harm publishers and advertisers." In its own submission, Google proposed an alternative: open access to AdX auctions for third-party platforms and introduce three-year external oversight.
Separately from this case, the US government also wants to force Google to sell the Chrome browser — this is part of a separate antitrust lawsuit related to the search market.