Advertising: Trial begins on Google's remedies

Google has passed the first "hurdle" almost unscathed (but will appeal). The Mountain View company will now have to try to win another legal battle, likely more risky for its profits than the one concerning its search engine monopoly. The trial begins today regarding the remedies requested by the U.S. Department of Justice to restore competition in the online advertising sector.

Will Google have to sell DFP and AdX?

According to the first-instance ruling , Google has a monopoly on the online advertising market with its DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP) and Ad Exchange (AdX) services. The Justice Department has called for the immediate sale of AdX and the gradual divestment of DFP.

The parties' lawyers will meet again in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia. The Department of Justice is confident that the outcome will be different from the one regarding the search engine monopoly. Judge Leonie Brinkema has ruled that there is a close connection between AdX and DFP, so the necessary separation between the two services through the sale of AdX seems obvious. If access to DFP data doesn't restore competition, Google will also have to sell DFP.

The Mountain View company claims that the remedies sought by the Department of Justice go beyond the court ruling. The sale of Google Ad Manager (DFP + AdX) will make it more difficult for publishers to monetize content and more expensive for advertisers to reach new customers.

Google has proposed alternative remedies ( PDF ) that do not involve selling services, including Ad Manager interoperability (allowing publishers to export data for free) and third-party ad server publisher access to AdX real-time auctions.

Google has already announced that it will appeal , so it will certainly ask for a stay on the implementation of the remedies unless the judge rejects all of the Department of Justice's requests (unlikely). The European Commission has imposed a fine of €2.95 billion for abusing its dominant position in the online advertising market.