Attorney General Kris Mayes has announced a court decision which found Google in violation of antitrust law for maintaining monopolies within the digital advertising technology sector. The ruling was delivered by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. Attorney General Mayes, part of a bipartisan coalition alongside the Department of Justice and attorneys general from 17 states, initiated legal action against Google in 2023. The lawsuit aimed to curtail Google's alleged anti-competitive behavior in online advertising.
Attorney General Mayes stated, "One of the main reasons I ran for this office was to push back against the imbalance we see in so many areas between entrenched corporate power and regular people. With this case, I have taken on a serious fight against corporate greed and abuses of power on behalf of small business and consumers in Arizona and won. This is a significant victory against the giant monopoly Google and a significant step forward in the national fight to bust all illegal monopolies."
The court's decision, delivered by Judge Leonie Brinkema, found Google culpable for monopolizing publisher ad server and ad exchange markets for open-web display advertising. The judgment also highlighted Google's unlawful practice of tying together its publisher ad server and ad exchange, adversely impacting competition and increasing costs while lowering service quality.
A subsequent phase of the trial will address remedies for Google's actions.
The lawsuit was steered by the attorneys general of New York, California, and Virginia, alongside those from Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Washington, and West Virginia.
A formal document of the court's decision is accessible online.