The U.S. government is taking significant steps to enhance competition in the advertising technology sector by suggesting that a major tech company divest two of its key advertising products. This move follows a recent court ruling that found the company guilty of maintaining monopoly power in the digital advertising landscape.
The Department of Justice (DoJ) has put forth a proposal that includes the sale of the company’s ad exchange product, along with a structured divestiture of its ad server designed for website publishers. This initiative aims to dismantle the monopolistic practices that have been identified and restore a competitive environment in the ad tech industry.
According to the DoJ’s filing, the company is urged to sell its ad exchange product and to implement a phased approach for the sale of its ad server. Furthermore, the proposal stipulates that the company should refrain from operating an ad exchange for a decade following the sale of its ad exchange product.
The allegations against the company suggest that it has manipulated the market to ensure that publishers would face significant revenue losses if they did not utilize its ad exchange. This integration of its ad products has been viewed as a tactic to create a monopoly, compelling websites to rely on its services.
In addition to the divestiture, the DoJ is advocating for the company to make its ad buying tools accessible to all third-party ad tech products under fair and non-discriminatory terms. This would include aspects such as bidding, ad placement, and information sharing, unless explicitly directed by an advertiser.
The filing emphasizes that these measures are essential to dismantle the company’s unlawfully acquired monopolies and to reintroduce competition into the ad exchange and publisher ad server markets. The goal is to prevent similar monopolistic behaviors in the future.
In response to these proposals, the company’s Vice President of Regulatory Affairs expressed concerns that such measures could negatively impact both publishers and advertisers. She argued that the DoJ’s additional recommendations extend beyond the court’s findings and lack legal justification.
In a separate filing, the company has also proposed its own set of remedies, which include making real-time bidding available to third-party ad servers and placing its actions under the oversight of an independent compliance observer for a specified period.
The company is currently facing antitrust scrutiny from multiple fronts, including a separate case where the government is pushing for the divestiture of its web browser following a ruling that deemed it a monopoly in the online search market.