Closing arguments underway in Google's advertising technology trial with the
Justice Department.
Eamon Javers is here.
He's got more from outside the courtroom.
And Eamon, can you just start off for all of
us in terms of explaining what this case is versus
the case we've been talking about so often lately in
terms of the remedies?
Because I think it can be hard to, it's sort
of easy to confuse the two for our for ourselves
and our viewers.
Yeah, absolutely, David.
That's right.
So we're here at the Rocket Docket.
This is the Eastern District of Virginia in Alexandria, VA.
And this case today is focused on Google's ad tech
technology.
It's different from the case that's going on in the
District of Columbia, which is a case that is largely
focused on the search mechanism.
And that is the case that Google has already lost.
And that is where we're seeing these remedies being proposed
to break up the company.
In this case on ad tech.
We saw the lawyers arriving here this morning all freshly
scrubbed and ready for closing arguments, which is what we're
getting today, 90 minutes on both sides.
Let me give you a sense of the two arguments
here.
You see what the DOJ has been saying, that Google
operates on multiple sides of the ad market as a
buyer, seller, and they operate the ad exchange that's in
the middle of that market.
DOJ is also arguing that Google has used a portfolio
of ad tools to create a monopoly in advertising search.
For its part, Google has fired back with a statement
of their own, saying that what the Justice Department is
doing here is essentially unfair, saying the DOJ wants to
force Google to build tools that would let other companies
who don't have our standards for safety and security market
to our customers and use our technology.
This case underway as of 10:00 AM this morning.
So we just saw the very beginning part of the
DO JS argument and the first argument right out of
the gate is one that they made under trial as
well, which is that it would be as if Goldman
Sachs owned the New York Stock Exchange.
The Department of Justice says because Google owns the exchange
on which all of these ads are bought and sold
and also is a buyer and seller of ads, therefore,
they say that is simply unfair.
It's a conflict of interest and it needs to stop.
We'll see whether the judge agrees with that.
Closing arguments should end up winding down here sometime this
afternoon.
Guys, back over to you.
If they if they lose this Eamon, then what?
What are the repercussions?
Well, then we'll go into a remedy phase in this
case as well, and you get this interesting dynamic where
could Google be forced to spin off the double click
ad service, for example, is one possibility.
We'll see whether that comes to that.
But we'll end up in potentially 2 dueling remedy phases
at the same time in which the Department of Justice
is arguing to different judges in different districts what should
happen to the future of Google.
It's a very tricky situation for Google to find itself
in.
And then at some point, we would imagine that all
of that that would be appealed, possibly even all the
way up to the Supreme Court.
There's a lot of legal maneuvering between here and there.
Guys.
Amon, thank you.
And thank you for the very concise explanation.
So we can all keep these things straight.