Google Antitrust Case: What It Means for Advertisers
In January 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) brought a federal antitrust case against Google accusing the tech giant of monopolizing the ad tech market in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890. Google has been entangled in antitrust lawsuits since 2020 based on the company’s alleged monopoly of the search engine market.
The Ruling
On Thursday April 17, 2025, a federal judge ruled against Google stating that the company is in fact operating an illegal monopoly in the ad tech industry. The court determined that Google used anticompetitive practices that helped them control the digital ad market. These practices include tying its publisher ad server and ad exchange together through contractual and technical integration.
The federal court failed to prove that Google has a monopoly in the ad networks themselves which was raised as a separate complaint in the case. This marks the second antitrust suit Google has lost after the initial 2020 search engine case. Google has publicly disagreed with the ruling arguing that their platform and practices do not harm users or competition.
What’s Next?
Currently, it is unclear what next steps the DOJ will take based on this ruling. Action is still needed on a separate search engine suit from 2020 to decide how Google will break its monopoly and how the new administration will affect that. Google will also inevitably appeal the federal court’s decision, pushing a final resolution out further.
How Will This Affect Google Advertising?
While there is no immediate resolution, this decision could have massive ramifications to how advertisers purchase inventory on current advertiser networks in the long run. The Google Ads platform can potentially be broken off or sold to another company enabling other platforms to access the ad networks for Google display, video, and even search more easily.
This could also give more transparency to the ad buying process on ad networks to create more opportunity for advertisers to choose where and how to buy ad inventory. Regardless of the legal outcome, Google will likely remain the world’s most used search engine even as the rise in popularity of search on platforms like Tik Tok, Perplexity, and others is shifting the global search engine landscape.
The Rain the Growth Agency team is working diligently to stay ahead of the curve and ensure we are exploring, vetting and testing all new opportunities.
This article is featured in Media Impact Report No. 65. View the full report here.