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DOJ seeks to make Google sell its ad exchange, AdX

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Google proposes policy changes instead

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Trial part of broader US crackdown on Big Tech

By Jody Godoy

ALEXANDRIA, Virginia, Sept 22 (Reuters) - Alphabet's

Google will seek to avoid a forced sale of part of its online

advertising business in its latest face-off with U.S. antitrust

enforcers at a trial starting on Monday in Alexandria, Virginia.

The trial is the government's next best shot at curbing what a

judge has ruled is Google's monopoly power, after losing a

separate bid to make Google sell its Chrome browser earlier this

month. Online publishers and rival ad tech developers, some of

whom have separately sued Google for damages, will be watching

the case closely.

The U.S. Department of Justice and a coalition of states are

seeking to make Google sell its ad exchange, AdX, where online

publishers pay Google a 20% fee to sell ads in auctions that

happen instantly when users load websites. The government also

seeks to require Google to make the mechanism that decides the

winner of those auctions open source.

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema, who will preside over the

trial, ruled in April that Google holds unlawful monopolies in

web advertising technology. After this week's trial, she will

decide what remedies to impose on the company.

The company has asked Brinkema to take the same cautious

approach as a judge in Washington, D.C., who recently rejected

most of the DOJ's proposals in a separate case over Google's

monopoly in online search.

The cases against Google are part of a larger bipartisan

crackdown by the U.S. on big tech firms, which began during

President Donald Trump's first term and includes cases still

pending against Meta Platforms ( META ), Amazon ( AMZN ) and

Apple ( AAPL ).

Google says the DOJ's proposal is technically unworkable and

would lead to prolonged uncertainty for advertisers and

publishers.

Google had previously offered to sell AdX, however, during

private negotiations to end an EU antitrust investigation,

Reuters reported last year. Google's internal studies on that

potential sale may come into evidence at this week's trial.

Instead of selling AdX, Google has now proposed changing its

policies to make it easier for publishers to use and support

competing platforms. The DOJ has said such requirements alone

are not adequate to restore competition.

A former News Corp executive and executives at DailyMail.com

and Advance Local, which operates local news outlets in eight

states, are among those expected to testify at the trial.

Some of those witnesses testified last year when the DOJ

convinced Brinkema that Google locked publishers into using its

publisher ad server - a platform used by websites to store and

manage their digital ad inventory - by unlawfully tying the

platform to Google AdX.

Doing so allowed Google to engage in practices that were not

in publishers' interests, such as giving Google's advertisers

the first and last opportunity to bid on ads, Brinkema wrote in

her April ruling.

If the DOJ's proposals have not bolstered competition within

four years, Google should also be required to sell its publisher

ad server, the government said in court papers.