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Google loses. DFP and AdX are illegal. Break-up coming
Google on Trial

Google loses. DFP and AdX are illegal. Break-up coming

#305: Google is a predator and three-times monopolist that rigged auctions and abused its power to hurt publishing for profit - official...

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Ricky Sutton
Apr 17, 2025
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Google loses. DFP and AdX are illegal. Break-up coming
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The Department of Justice dropped a line for the ages in its closing arguments. “Google’s once, twice, three times a monopolist,” lawyer Aaron Teitelbaum said.

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It “rigged” auctions to abuse the “free and open internet” to tax everyone that uses it, and it’s a “predator” that holds publishers “hostage” for profit.

Overnight, Judge Leonie Brinkema agreed. With all of it. And that means big change is coming. It’s going to be unsettling.

She ruled on what many have considered unimaginable:

  • DFP is illegal: It was designed by Google to build monopoly power over global digital advertising, and

  • AdX breaches the law: It was used to monopolise the open web and the ad exchange market to profit from publishers

And she has ruled that Google broke the law again by forcing publishers to use both if they wanted ad supply - in a process known as tying.

This is kind of a big …

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