Alexandria, Virginia – The judge who will determine whether Google has a monopoly on technology that connects buyers and sellers of online advertising must decide whether to believe what Google executives wrote or what they said on the witness stand.
This week, the Justice Department is winding up its antitrust lawsuit against Google in a federal courtroom in Virginia. The federal government and a coalition of states claim Google has established and maintained a monopoly on the technology used to buy and sell advertisements that show to people when they surf the internet.
Google counters that the government is improperly focussing on a very narrow slice of advertising — essentially the rectangular banner ads that appear on the top and right side of a publisher’s web page — and that in the broader online advertising market, Google is surrounded by competition from social media companies and streaming TV services.
At Google Antitrust Trial, Documents Say One Thing. The Tech Giant’s Witnesses Say Different
Many of the government’s major witnesses have been Google managers and executives, who have frequently attempted to retract what they have written in emails, chats, and company presentations.
This was notably evident Thursday during the testimony of Jonathan Bellack, a Google product manager who sent an email that government lawyers believe is particularly incriminating.
In 2016, Bellack sent an email asking, “Is there a deeper issue with us owning the platform, the exchange, and a massive network?” The parallel would be if Goldman Sachs or Citigroup bought the NYSE or New York Stock Exchange.
For the Justice Department, Bellack’s description is nearly a flawless representation of their case. It claims that Google’s technology dominates both the market for online publishers to sell available ad space on their websites and the technology utilised by large networks of advertisers to acquire ad space. According to the lawsuit, Google even dominates the “ad exchanges” that act as a middleman in connecting buyers and sellers.
As a result of Google’s dominance in all aspects of the transaction, Justice claims the Mountain View, California-based internet behemoth has shut out competitors and been able to charge outrageous costs of 36 cents on the dollar for each ad impression that passes through its ad technology stack.
On the witness stand Thursday, Bellack characterized his email as “late night, jet-lagged ramblings.” He stated he didn’t think Google’s dominance over the buy side, sell side, or middleman was a problem. Still, he did wonder why certain customers were seeking solutions to Google’s technology.
Earlier this week, another Google official, Nirmal Jayaram, spent a substantial portion of his hearing denying the views represented in emails he wrote or articles and presentations he coauthored.
The Justice Department, of course, claims that what Google employees wrote in real-time is a more accurate representation of reality. It claims that there would be much more incriminating documentary proof if Google had not routinely erased many of the internal chats used by employees to discuss business, even after the corporation was notified that it was being investigated.
According to testimony, Google developed a “Communicate with Care” strategy in which employees were directed to add company lawyers to critical emails to classify them as “privileged” and protect them from disclosure to government regulators.
U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema described Google’s document retention rules as “absolutely inappropriate and improper” and noted them during the trial, but she did not impose any specific punishment.
At Google Antitrust Trial, Documents Say One Thing. The Tech Giant’s Witnesses Say Different
The Virginia trial began on September 9, exactly a month after a judge in the District of Columbia deemed Google’s primary business, its ubiquitous search engine, an illegal monopoly. The trial is still proceeding to see what, if any, remedies the judge may impose.
The ad tech at issue in the Virginia trial does not generate as much revenue for Google as its search engine, but it is nevertheless estimated to generate tens of billions of dollars every year.
The Virginia trial has been progressing significantly faster than the D.C. case. The government has produced witnesses for nine days straight and is almost done with its case. The judge has warned Google that it may expect to begin presenting its own witnesses on Friday.
SOURCE | AP
