A federal judge has unsealed her ruling on behavioral remedies in Google's adtech antitrust case, ordering the company not to give its own ad services preferential treatment for six years. Google avoids a breakup but must open its exchange to rivals, integrate with Prebid, and submit to an independent monitor.
Google won't be forced to break up its advertising business, but the federal judge overseeing its landmark adtech antitrust trial has now unsealed a ruling ordering a long list of behavioral changes. The company was found liable for illegally monopolizing certain online ad markets, with the remedies applying globally for six years.
Google loses its auction advantages
The company runs an ad server that publishers use to manage and sell ads, buying tools that help marketers purchase ads, and an exchange that connects the two. Under the ruling, Google can no longer give its own services preferential treatment in ad auctions across the open internet.
Regulators also barred Google from enforcing policies or contract terms that tie its DFP ad server to its AdX exchange, and from reimplementing auction mechanisms known as "First Look" and "Last Look" that previously gave AdX bidding advantages. Patrick Briggs, CEO of digital ad agency HubShout, said removing advantages such as Last Look could make ad auctions more trustworthy and potentially improve the value of the broader display ad market.
Rivals gain access to Google's exchange
Beyond auction rules, the ruling requires AdX and DFP to integrate with Prebid, the open-source technology publishers use to invite multiple ad exchanges to bid for space through header bidding. Rajeev Goel, CEO of adtech company PubMatic, testified as a DOJ witness in the trial and said the remedy should help rival exchanges compete more fairly with AdX, though differences between Google's integration and Prebid's existing connections could create friction.
According to Goel: "it creates a lot of wasted effort" when systems don't align smoothly.
Separately, AdX must make real-time bids available to rival publisher ad servers, so publishers can receive advertiser bids without being locked into Google's DFP. Goel said this should let publishers judge DFP on its own merits rather than being tied to AdX monetization. Google must hand publishers historical and configuration data from DFP along with ongoing AdX bid data, which Nick Stoltz, chief strategy officer at Measured, said reduces the cost of switching to a rival ad server.
A monitor will police compliance
Elsewhere in the order, neither AdX nor DFP may discriminate in favor of Google's own technology, and Google Ads can't bid directly into DFP or favor Google-owned adtech in open-web display. A court-appointed monitor, paid for by Google, will oversee compliance and can inspect the company's source code, algorithms, and documents, and interview employees.
Wyatt Fore, a partner at law firm Shinder Cantor Lerner, said independent monitors are particularly useful in complex technology cases, where companies may technically comply with an order without fulfilling its broader intent. The final legal order spelling out exactly how the remedies will work hasn't yet been issued, and Google has said it plans to appeal part of the court's liability ruling.
Source: Business Insider
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