The U.S. Department of Justice is proposing that Google sell two of its advertising products to restore competition in the ad tech space, according to a new filing. The proposal comes after a judge found Google guilty of “willfully acquiring and maintaining monopoly power” in the digital ad space last month.
The DOJ’s filing notes that Google should divest its ad exchange product AdX, along with a “phased” sale of DoubleClick for Publishers, an ad server for website publishers. The department also wants Google to avoid running an ad exchange for 10 years post the sale of AdX.
The DOJ alleged Google had “ensured that publishers would lose significant revenue if they did not use AdX.” It also accused the search giant of creating a monopoly by integrating AdX and DFP, forcing websites to use Google’s publisher product.
The proposal also directed Google to open up its ad buying tools, including AdWords, and have them work with all third-party ad tech products “on non-discriminatory terms with respect to bidding, matching, placement of ads, or provision of information, except at the express instruction of an advertiser.”
“This comprehensive set of remedies—including divestiture of Google’s unlawfully obtained monopolies and the products that were the principal instruments of Google’s illegal scheme—is necessary to terminate Google’s monopolies, deny Google the fruits of its violations, reintroduce competition into the ad exchange and publisher ad server markets, and guard against reoccurrence in the future,” the filing said.
In response to these proposals, Google’s VP of regulatory affairs, Lee-Anne Mulholland, said that the measures would harm publishers and advertisers.
“The DOJ conceded Google’s proposed ad tech remedy fully addresses the Court’s decision on liability. The DOJ’s additional proposals to force a divestiture of our ad tech tools go well beyond the Court’s findings, have no basis in law, and would harm publishers and advertisers,” Mulholland said in a statement.
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Google proposed its own set of remedies in a separate filing. These include making AdX real-time bids available to all third-party ad servers, and keeping Google’s actions under an independent compliance observer for three years.
Google is fighting antitrust pressure from several directions. Separate from the ad tech case, the U.S. also wants the company to sell its Chrome browser after a judge found the company to be a monopoly in the online search market.
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