Google has been found guilty under the Sherman Act United States v. Google LLC
Of illegally monopolizing advertising markets for publisher ad servers and ad exchanges used in open-web display advertising.
The ruling is that Google engaged in a series of anti-competitive acts to willfully acquire and maintain monopoly power in the ad technology market, using acquisitions of ad software companies (such as DoubleClick and AdMeld) to unlawfully shore up market share and stifle competition.
The ruling probably does not bode well for Meta, which faces similar antitrust action brought by the Federal Trade Commission. Principally, the FTC alleges that Meta illegally maintained a monopoly in the "personal social networking services" market through anticompetitive conduct.
The core of the complaint focuses on the acquisition of competitors, as was the finding in the Google ad tech antitrust decision.
The FTC argues Meta employed a "buy-or-bury" strategy, specifically targeting its acquisitions of Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014 to neutralize potential competitive threats and maintain its dominance.
What matters are the remedies the government entities might propose, assuming Meta likewise is found guilty of monopolistic behavior.
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