The U.S. Department of Justice has submitted a new proposal that would force Google to divest two of its core advertising products in an effort to restore competition in the digital advertising market. The move follows a federal court ruling last month that determined Google had deliberately acquired and maintained monopolistic power in the ad tech industry.
According to the proposal, Google would be required to sell AdX — its digital advertising exchange — and gradually divest its DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP) ad server, widely used by advertisers and website publishers. Additionally, the company would be barred from launching any new ad exchange for ten years following the sale of AdX.
The Justice Department argues that Google unlawfully tied AdX and DFP together in a way that made it difficult for advertisers to use competing systems. The tech giant is also accused of penalizing advertisers who opted out of its platforms by reducing their ad revenues — a tactic that allegedly coerced reliance on Google’s tools and undermined free market competition.
In a statement responding to the proposal, Lee-Anne Mulholland, Google’s Vice President of Regulatory Affairs, said the measures go beyond the scope of the court’s ruling and lack legal grounding. She warned that implementing the changes would cause real harm to advertisers. Google has proposed an alternative plan that would allow third-party ad systems access to AdX and establish independent oversight of the platform for a period of three years.
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