ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — Google, already facing a possible breakup of the company over its ubiquitous search engine, is fighting to beat back another attack by the U.S. Department of Justice alleging monopolistic conduct, this time over technology that puts online advertising in front of consumers.
The Justice Department and Google are scheduled to make closing arguments Monday in a trial alleging Google's advertising technology constitutes an illegal monopoly.
U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema in Alexandria, Virginia, will decide the case and is expected to issue a written ruling by the end of the year. If Brinkema finds Google has engaged in illegal, monopolistic conduct, she will then hold further hearings to explore what remedies should be imposed.
The Justice Department, along with a coalition of states, has already said it believes Google should be forced to sell off its ad tech business, which generates tens of billions of dollars annually for the Mountain View, California-based company.
After roughly a month of trial testimony earlier this year, the arguments in the case remain the same.
The Justice Department contends Google built and maintained a monopoly in “open-web display advertising,” essentially the rectangular ads that appear on the top and right-hand side of the page when one browses websites.
Google dominates all facets of the market: A technology called “DoubleClick” is used pervasively by news sites and other online publishers, while “Google Ads” maintains a cache of advertisers large and small looking to place their ads on the right webpage in front of the right consumer.
In between is another Google product, AdExchange, that conducts nearly instantaneous auctions matching advertisers to publishers.
In court papers, Justice Department lawyers say Google “is more concerned with acquiring and preserving its trifecta of monopolies than serving its own publisher and advertiser customers or winning on the merits.”
As a result, content providers and news organizations have never been able to generate the online revenue they should due to Google’s excessive fees for brokering transactions between advertisers and publishers, the government says.
Google argues the government's case improperly focuses on a narrow niche of online advertising. If one looks more broadly at online advertising to include social media, streaming TV services, and app-based advertising, Google says it controls only 25% of the market, a share that is dwindling as it faces increased and evolving competition.
Google alleges in court papers that the government’s lawsuit “boil(s) down to the persistent complaints of a handful of Google’s rivals and several mammoth publishers.”
Google also says it has invested billions in technology that facilitates the efficient match of advertisers to interested consumers and it should not be forced to share its technology and success with competitors.
“Requiring a company to do further engineering work to make its technology and customers accessible by all of its competitors on their preferred terms has never been compelled by U.S. antitrust law,” the company wrote.
The Virginia case is separate from an ongoing lawsuit brought against Google in the District of Columbia over its namesake search engine. In that case, the judge determined the search engine constitutes an illegal monopoly but has not decided what remedy to impose.
The Justice Department said last week it will seek to force Google to sell its Chrome Web browser, among a host of other penalties. Google has said the department's request is overkill and unhinged from legitimate regulation.
FILE - Lawyers and legal assistants leave the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia for a lunch break in the Department of Justice's antitrust trial against tech giant Google, Sept. 9, 2024, in Alexandria, Va. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough, File)
FILE - The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia is seen, Sept. 9, 2024, in Alexandria, Va. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough, File)
FILE - The Google sign is shown over an entrance to the company's building in New York on Sept. 6, 2023. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan, File)
TBILISI, Georgia (AP) — The newly elected Georgian parliament opened its inaugural session on Monday as opposition lawmakers and the country's ceremonial president stayed away and thousands of protesters rallied outside, accusing the ruling party of rigging the vote under Russian influence.
The Oct. 26 election that kept the Georgian Dream party in power was widely seen as a referendum on the country’s effort to join the European Union.
Opposition parties refused to participate in Monday's parliamentary activities, and only 88 Georgian Dream members were in the hall as the 150-seat parliament held its first session.
Nika Melia, leader of Coalition for Changes, vowed that the opposition “will do everything to defeat the so-called government, the self-proclaimed government.”
“This is the fight between people fighting for freedom against people who are trying to entrench the deeply authoritarian regime," he said.
President Salome Zourabichvili, who has rejected the official results and refused to recognize the parliament’s legitimacy, didn’t attend the opening session.
Zourabichvili, who holds the mostly ceremonial position, said on X that the parliament is unconstitutional because of evidence of electoral fraud and her refusal to open the session as required by the constitution. Zourabichvili has filed a lawsuit at the Constitutional Court, arguing that two fundamental principles guaranteed by the constitution — the secrecy of the vote and its universality — were violated.
Several thousand protesters rallied outside the parliament under pouring rain, facing phalanxes of riot police.
“The government has stolen elections from us,” said student Vakho Sebiskveradze. “It’s not only about the elections — this is about stealing the European future from the Georgian people, the Georgian nation, and the Georgian youth.”
The Central Election Commission said Georgian Dream won about 54% of the vote in October. Its leaders have rejected opposition claims of fraud.
European election observers said the election took place in a “divisive” atmosphere marked by instances of bribery, double voting and physical violence.
Critics have accused Georgian Dream — established by Bidzina Ivanishvili, a shadowy billionaire who made his fortune in Russia — of becoming increasingly authoritarian and tilted toward Moscow. The party recently pushed through laws similar to those used by the Kremlin to crack down on freedom of speech and LGBTQ+ rights.
The EU suspended Georgia’s membership application process indefinitely in June after the country’s parliament passed a law requiring organizations that receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad to register as “pursuing the interest of a foreign power,” similar to a Russian law used to discredit organizations critical of the government.
A woman and a girl sit holding a Georgian national flag in front of police blocking the entrance of the Parliament's building during a rally to demand new parliamentary elections in the country, in Tbilisi, Georgia, on Monday, Nov. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Zurab Tsertsvadze)
Protesters gather in front of the Parliament's building during a rally to demand new parliamentary elections in the country, in Tbilisi, Georgia, Monday, Nov. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Zurab Tsertsvadze)
A woman gestures standing in front of police blocking the entrance of the Parliament's building during a rally to demand new parliamentary elections in the country, in Tbilisi, Georgia, Monday, Nov. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Zurab Tsertsvadze)
A woman holds an EU flag in front of police blocking the entrance of the Parliament's building during a rally to demand new parliamentary elections in the country, in Tbilisi, Georgia, Monday, Nov. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Zurab Tsertsvadze)
Protesters with a Georgian national flag stand in front of police blocking the entrance of the Parliament's building during a rally to demand new parliamentary elections in the country, in Tbilisi, Georgia, Monday, Nov. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Zurab Tsertsvadze)
Protesters gather in a street during a rally to demand new parliamentary elections in the country, near the Parliament's building in Tbilisi, Georgia, on Monday, Nov. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Zurab Tsertsvadze)
Police block a street during a rally to demand new parliamentary elections in the country, near the Parliament's building in Tbilisi, Georgia, Monday, Nov. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Zurab Tsertsvadze)
Police block protesters gathered in a street during a rally to demand new parliamentary elections in the country, near the Parliament's building in Tbilisi, Georgia, Monday, Nov. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Zurab Tsertsvadze)
A protester holds a poster as they gather in a street during a rally to demand new parliamentary elections in the country, near the Parliament's building in Tbilisi, Georgia, on Monday, Nov. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Zurab Tsertsvadze)
A woman shouts standing in front of police blocking the entrance of the Parliament's building during a rally to demand new parliamentary elections in the country, in Tbilisi, Georgia, on Monday, Nov. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Zurab Tsertsvadze)
