Judge sides with online publishers in Google ad tech antitrust case USA TODAY October 28, 2025 at 10:18 PM 0 A New York federal judge ruled in favor of online news publishers and advertisers who allege Google unlawfully monopolized the digital advertising market and diverted revenue that would have ...
- - Judge sides with online publishers in Google ad tech antitrust case
USA TODAY October 28, 2025 at 10:18 PM
0
A New York federal judge ruled in favor of online news publishers and advertisers who allege Google unlawfully monopolized the digital advertising market and diverted revenue that would have otherwise gone to news operations.
U.S. District Court Judge P. Kevin Castel granted partial summary judgement for Gannett, the country's largest newspaper chain and owner of USA TODAY, the Daily Mail, digital media company Inform and a proposed class of smaller publishers, holding Google liable for illegally monopolizing its advertising placement technology business.
In a complaint filed in 2023, Gannett and the other plaintiffs accused Google of violating federal antitrust laws by abusing its dominant position to control and profit from the technology used by publishers to buy and sell ads across the internet.
In his ruling, Castel pointed to the findings in the Justice Department's antitrust trial against Google in Northern Virginia earlier this year.
U.S. District Court Judge Leonie Brinkema ruled in April that Google acted illegally to maintain its monopoly over some of the automated systems that place ads on the internet, allowing the company to substantially harm publishers, the competitive process, and consumers of information..
In that case, the Justice Department accused Google of excluding competitors and "corrupting" the digital ad market, which is worth more than $200 billion in the U.S. During the trial, DOJ called witnesses who had worked for publishers including Gannett.
"Judge Brinkema's findings of fact and conclusions of law are precise and concise," Castel wrote.
This photo illustration shows Google logos.
Gannett CEO and Chairman Mike Reed hailed the ruling as a "major development in the broader antitrust battle" against Google.
Gannett publishes USA TODAY as well as more than 200 daily newspapers across the country. Google has faced a string of antitrust lawsuits, including from publishers who have accused the company of monopolizing the digital ad market at the expense of local news operations.
"This is a significant legal win for Gannett and a good day for competition," Reed said in a statement.
Google did not respond to requests for comment. At the time the complaint was filed, Google told USA TODAY that publishers like Gannett use dozens of competing services to place ads.
"When publishers choose to use Google tools, they keep the vast majority of revenue," Dan Taylor, vice president of Google Ads, said in a 2023 statement. "We'll show the court how our advertising products benefit publishers and help them fund their content online." Publishers receive much less as a result of being forced to use Google tools.
Loyola University Chicago School of Law professor Spencer Weber Waller said the judge's ruling was a significant setback for Google.
"Certain key aspects of their case were conclusively decided in the earlier government case and will not be litigated and will be assumed to be true in this case. That's huge because the media companies don't have to put on any further evidence as to what the market is, whether Google has monopoly power in certain of these markets and the court found that certain things that Google did violated the law," said Waller, who is the director of the Institute for Consumer Antitrust Studies.
In seeking damages, Gannett and the other plaintiffs still have to show that Google's conduct caused damages along with a fair estimate of those damages, Waller said.
"However, the trial will be shorter and a number of the key issues have already been established against Google," he said. "This is like starting the 10th inning with a runner on second base. You're halfway home."
Brian Wieser, CEO of Madison and Wall, an advisory firm for media, technology retail and other businesses supported by advertising, said even if newspaper publishers recover damages, they still face industry headwinds.
"Consumers need to get used to paying for good journalism. That's been true for a while and it's even more true now. Ad-supported internet properties from legacy newspapers are going to continue to face challenges," Wieser said.
(This story has been to add new information.)
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Judge rules for publishers in Google antitrust case
Source: "AOL Money"
Source: DEVI MAG
Read More >> Full Article on Source: DEVI MAG
#LALifestyle #USCelebrities