“Plaintiffs have proven that Google has willfully engaged in a series of anticompetitive acts to acquire and maintain monopoly power in the publisher ad server and ad exchange markets for open-web display advertising,” Judge Leonie Brinkema concluded in a 115-page ruling (PDF) for the Alexandria division of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
https://www.pcmag.com/news/google-guilty-of-willfully-anticompetitive-acts-in-display-ads-business
Predictably, Google is not happy with the DOJ's plan, which requires the company to sell its Chrome browser. It also retains the option of forcing Google to divest Android if competition doesn't increase from behavioral remedies, including bans on exclusive default deals with other browsers and device makers. Additionally, Google is prohibited from building any new browsers and must fund an education campaign that shows people how to switch search engines and potentially even pays people to switch. Google may also be restricted from using its data scale advantage to benefit its AI products.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/11/welcome-to-googles-nightmare-us-reveals-plan-to-destroy-search-monopoly/
Google is in trouble on two major fronts: The Federal Trade Commission says Google has monopolized the internet search industry, and the Department of Justice says Google has monopolized the internet ad industry. There’s a third case in the U.S. relating to Google’s app store, brought by an app maker named Epic Games. In the search case, Judge Amit P. Mehta of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that the way Google runs its search business is illegal and monopolistic. He’s scheduled hearings on a solution for next spring and said he’ll issue a ruling next summer. The trial in the ad case began this month in Virginia.
https://qz.com/google-search-advertising-monopoly-antitrust-lawsuits-1851654770