US v. Google - a Breakdown of the Landmark Monopoly Case

Written by legalpdf | Published 2023/09/11
Tech Story Tags: tech-companies | google | us-v.-google | legal | monopoly | google-monopoly | monopoly-on-search | seo

TLDRthis is simply a table of links that helps you navigate this entire case :) via the TL;DR App

USA v. Google LLC Court Filing, retrieved on January 24, 2023, is part of HackerNoon’s Legal PDF Series. You can jump to any part in this filing here. This is the table of links with all parts.

Case Number: 1:23-cv-00108

Plaintiff: USA

Defendant: Google LLC

Filing Date: January 24, 2023

Location: US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia - Alexandria Division

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. INTRODUCTION

II. NATURE OF THIS ACTION

III. DISPLAY ADVERTISING TRANSACTIONS

A. How Ad Tech Tools Work B. How Ad Tech Intermediaries Get Paid

C. How Publishers and Advertisers Select Ad Tech Tools

D. Why Scale and the Resulting Network Effects are Necessary to Compete in Ad Tech

E. How Multi-Homing Enables Competition in the Ad Tech Stack

IV. GOOGLE’S SCHEME TO DOMINATE THE AD TECH STACK

A. Google Buys Control of the Key Tools that Link Publishers and Advertisers

B. Google Uses Its Acquisitions and Position Across the Ad Tech Stack to Lock Out Rivals and Control Each Key Ad Tech Tool

  1. Google Thwarts Fair Competition by Making Its Google Ads’ Advertiser Demand Exclusive to Its Own Ad Exchange, AdX
  2. In Turn, Google Makes Its Ad Exchange’s Real-Time Bids Exclusive to Its Publisher Ad Server
  3. Finally, Google Uses Its Control of Publisher Inventory to Force More Valuable Transactions Through Its Ad Exchange
  4. Google’s Dominance Across the Ad Tech Stack Gives It the Unique Ability to Manipulate Auctions to Protect Its Position, Hinder Rivals, and Work Against Its Own Customers’ Interests

a) Google Works Against the Interests of Its Google Ads’ Customers By Submitting Two Bids Into AdX Auctions

b) Google Manipulates Its Fees to Keep More High-Value Impressions Out of the Hands of Rivals

C. Google Buys and Kills a Burgeoning Competitor and Then Tightens the Screws

  1. Google Extinguishes AdMeld’s Potential Threat
  2. Google Doubles Down on Preventing Rival Publisher Ad Servers from Accessing AdX and Google Ads’ Demand
  3. Google Manipulates Google Ads’ Bidding Strategy to Block Publisher Partnerships with Rivals

D. Google Responds to the Threat of Header Bidding by Further Excluding Rivals and Reinforcing Its Dominance

  1. The Industry Attempts to Rebel Against Google’s Exclusionary Practices
  2. Google Blunts Header Bidding By “Drying Out” the Competition

a. Google Develops So-Called Open Bidding, Its Own Google Friendly Version of Header Bidding To Preserve Its Control Over the Sale of Publisher Inventory

b) Google Further Stunts Header Bidding by Working to Bring Facebook and Amazon into Its Open Bidding Fold.

c) Google Manipulates Its Publisher Fees Using Dynamic Revenue Sharing in Order to Route More Transactions Through Its Ad Exchange and Deny Scale to Rival Ad Exchanges Using Header Bidding

d) Google Launches Project Poirot to Manipulate Its Advertisers’ Spend to “Dry Out” and Deny Scale to Rival Ad Exchanges That Use Header Bidding

e) Google Imposes So-Called Unified Pricing Rules to Deprive Publishers of Control and Force More Transactions Through Google’s Ad Exchange

f) Google Outright Blocks the Use of Standard Header Bidding on Accelerated Mobile Pages

g) Google Replaces Its Last Look Preference from Dynamic Allocation with an Algorithmic Advantage and Degrades Data Available to Publishers

V. ANTICOMPETITIVE EFFECTS

VI. RELEVANT MARKETS

A. Geographic Markets

B. Product Markets

  1. Publisher Ad Servers

  2. Ad Exchanges

  3. Advertiser Ad Networks

VII. JURISDICTION, VENUE, AND COMMERCE

VIII. VIOLATIONS ALLEGED

IX. REQUEST FOR RELIEF

X. DEMAND FOR A JURY TRIAL


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This court case 1:23-cv-00108 retrieved on September 8, 2023, from justice.gov is part of the public domain. The court-created documents are works of the federal government, and under copyright law, are automatically placed in the public domain and may be shared without legal restriction.


Written by legalpdf | Legal PDFs of important tech court cases are far too inaccessible for the average reader... until now.
Published by HackerNoon on 2023/09/11