The remedy phase of United States v. Google LLC kicked off in a federal courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia, on Monday. In its opening statement, the US Department of Justice’s team called Google’s proposed remedy a “Band-Aid on a seriously severed limb.”
Google and the DOJ are back in court to make their cases in front of US District Court Judge Leonie Brinkema, who sided with the DOJ in April. Lawyers from both sides gave opening statements today and questioned witnesses. Marketing Brew condensed several hours’ worth of ad-tech executives using obscure vocabulary into a digestible roundup, below.
Hit the ground running: Both the DOJ’s and Google’s opening statements focused on pushing back on the other side’s proposed remedies. The DOJ’s team argued that Google should divest its ad exchange AdX. Google’s team, on the other hand, argued against a divestiture, making the case for other, smaller remedies. Among the remedies Google’s team suggested were amending its contracts with publishers and increasing interoperability with other ad servers.
Witnesses who took the stand:
- Grant Whitmore, VP, ad tech and programmatic revenue at the publisher Advance Local: Whitmore took the stand to share his experience using Google’s ad products. He advocated for the divestiture of AdX to boost competition, saying that Google’s dominance is “unhealthy.” He also criticized the “opaque” nature of Google’s publisher ad server.
- Andrew Casale, president and CEO of Index Exchange, an SSP: Casale, who appeared in the first phase of the trial last fall (and whose company is an AdX competitor), claimed that Google’s ad products have stifled competition.
We’ll be back tomorrow with another recap of everything that happened in court.
Get marketing news you’ll actually want to read
Marketing Brew informs marketing pros of the latest on brand strategy, social media, and ad tech via our weekday newsletter, virtual events, marketing conferences, and digital guides.
Read the full article here
