The biggest takeaways from week 2 of the Google ad tech remedies trial

The remedies phase of the Google ad tech antitrust trial continued last week, with Google making its defense.

Once the trial is over, Judge Leonie Brinkema — who ruled in April that Google maintained a monopoly in two ad tech product markets — will decide how to restore competition in the digital advertising marketplace.

The two sides remain sharply divided on remedies.

On day seven of the trial on Sept. 30, Glenn Berntson, a Google engineering director, testified that the company would be willing to provide publishers with data on why its ad server selected a particular display ad, according to Bloomberg.

Ahead of the trial, Google had also proposed, in part, making real-time bids from its ad exchange, AdX, available to competing publisher ad servers for “Qualifying Open-Web Display Inventory.”

The Department of Justice, however, is seeking more sweeping remedies. It wants Google to be ordered to divest AdX, and to preserve the right to seek full divestiture of Google’s publisher ad server, DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP), if other proposed remedies fail to restore competition.

During week one, the DOJ presented charts that illustrated how AdX controlled 56% of market share and DFP controlled 91%.

In her opening arguments during week one of the trial, Google attorney Karen Dunn called the DOJ’s proposals “radical and reckless.” Google has maintained that divestiture of AdX would hurt the advertising industry and publishers that rely on it.

During week two, testimony revealed that Google had hired an investment bank in 2020 to evaluate a potential sale of AdX.

Still, some questioned whether buyers would show much interest in AdX. Dr. Shane Goodwin, an M&A expert, said that companies would be reluctant to bid on AdX over “unanswered questions,” according to Marketecture’s Ari Paparo. And Rajeev Goel, CEO of PubMatic, testified last week that he didn’t have enough information to know if he would consider acquiring it, according to The Verge.

DOJ attorney David Geiger, when cross-examining Goodwin, countered that a court order would clear up any confusion and noted that prior witnesses who had testified they would buy AdX, according to Jerry Cayford, writing for the newsletter Big Tech on Trial.

PubMatic is suing Google over anticompetitive practices. When asked by Brinkema whether other lawsuits would rein in Google, Goel said it’s impossible to list the ways Google could later advantage itself again.

Other witnesses testified that AdX should be divested, including Grant Whitmore, vice president of ad technology and programmatic revenue at Advance Local, who testified during week one.

“Google has demonstrated their ability to adapt their business in a manner that continually grants them an advantage,” he said.

Google witnesses pushed back. WikiHow CEO Elizabeth Douglas told the court she was “worried for my business” if Google’s ad tech business is broken up.

But as Jason Kint of Digital Content Next and Big Tech on Trial’s Cayford both pointed out, much of wikiHow’s revenue comes from AdX and a licensing deal with Google.

“Douglas is not just a customer who likes Google, but is a customer who is dependent on staying in its good graces,” Cayford observed.