Google broke law by dominating online ad tech market, rules US judge

Google was found guilty of unlawfully controlling key parts of the online advertising market, according to a ruling by a US federal judge on Thursday (April 17). The decision marks a major setback for the tech giant in an antitrust case brought by the US government.

Judge Leonie Brinkema, based in Alexandria, Virginia, observed that Google had unfairly held monopoly power in two critical areas: publisher ad servers and ad exchanges, which help connect advertisers with websites and apps. However, she noted there wasn’t enough evidence to prove Google had a monopoly in advertiser ad networks.