Digiday - DOJ and Google make closing arguments in landmark adtech antitrust trial

Senior reporter Karina Montoya suggests in response to the the Google Ad Tech Case, that the DOJ believes Judge Brinkema recognizes their case against Google's monopolistic practices is strong, even under Google's own market definition.

After weeks of intense testimony and mountains of evidence, the Department of Justice and Google rested their case with closing arguments in the Google adtech antitrust trial in federal court.

Making the government’s case Monday morning, DOJ attorneys cited the Charles Dickens novel “A Tale of Two Cities” to contrast Google’s portrayal of a thriving sector industry with the darker reality faced by publishers and adtech providers. Meanwhile, Google’s lawyers challenged the government’s interpretation of the market as insufficient to prove harm and described an industry with growth, innovation and plenty of competition.

The industry now awaits a ruling expected in the coming months. However, observers say the questions and comments from U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema might offer a glimpse as to what she might be thinking about the facts of the case. Some said Brinkema seemed to understand that open web display ads aren’t the same as other ad formats, which seemed to signal the judge wasn’t fully persuaded by Google’s claims of not being a monopoly. 

“Google used the broadest possible market definition and then argued that output was increasing,” said Roger Alford, an antitrust law professor at Notre Dame. “But when Judge Brinkema asked whether output was increasing using the Plaintiffs’ market definition, Google had no answer.”

Megan Gray, the founder of GrayMatters Law & Policy, thinks the facts lean in the DOJ’s favor. She mentioned Google lawyer Karen Dunn at one point showing a slide suggesting Google having a smaller market share than the DOJ suggested. However, Brinkema noticed the slide addressed the overall ad market — including social media, connected TV and apps — and asked if there was another slide that showed just the open web display market in question. 

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