Full timeline of Google’s antitrust issues

Just one month after Google (GOOGL) lost an antitrust lawsuit over its online search monopoly, the tech giant is facing a second major antitrust case over its dominance in search. The trial, which begins this week (September 9), will feature Judge Leonie Brinkema, a federal judge in Virginia, who will determine whether the company is illegally monopolizing the digital advertising industry.

Google is no stranger to antitrust scrutiny — in August, another federal judge ruled that the company had built an unfair position in the online search market. The company has previously faced a slew of antitrust investigations into issues including its app store business and Android mobile operating system.

This time, Google is under scrutiny for its outsize hold on digital advertising. The ongoing lawsuit stems from a federal antitrust lawsuit last year that alleged the company unfairly controlled both the supply and demand for online advertising through its monopoly on the “ad tech stack” used by digital publishers and advertisers — in part through its acquisitions of other ad tech companies.

Losing the case could lead to the disintegration of Google’s ad tech business, with wide-ranging ramifications across the tech and ad markets. Google has been a major player in online advertising for decades. Its ad revenues He reached over Last year, the company’s revenue was $200 billion, accounting for more than two-thirds of the company’s total revenue.

Here is a chronology of events that led to the Google ad technology case:

2008: Google acquires DoubleClick

Google’s purchase of DoubleClick, a publisher ad server, is one of the most important aspects of the ongoing antitrust case. Its $3.1 billion acquisition of DoubleClick in 2008 “elevated Google to a dominant position over the tools publishers use to sell advertising opportunities” and “set the stage for Google’s subsequent exclusionary conduct in the ad technology industry,” according to an antitrust lawsuit filed more than a decade later. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) investigated Google’s acquisition at the time and ultimately allowed the tech company to proceed with the purchase.

2009-2011: Advertising technology purchases are growing

Google didn’t stop at DoubleClick. In the years that followed, it built an ad-tech empire, making a series of acquisitions to strengthen its position as a middleman between advertisers and publishers. In 2009, it bought AdMob, a system that lets mobile app publishers sell ads, for $750 million. The following year, it acquired Invite Media, a display ad exchange, for $81 million. And in 2011, Google bought yield manager AdMeld for $400 million.

2016: Google begins combining user data

When Google acquired DoubleClick in 2008, its privacy policy prevented Google from combining user data from outside sites with data from Google sites. That changed in 2016, according to the antitrust lawsuit. Google allegedly changed its policy and began combining user data, a decision that helped it target ads to users “in a way that no one else in the industry could without gaining a monopoly — or at least a dominant position — in adjacent markets, such as search,” according to the lawsuit.

2023: Justice Department launches antitrust investigation

In January 2023, Google’s dominance in ad tech finally reached a head. The U.S. Department of Justice and eight states filed an antitrust lawsuit in a federal district court in Virginia, accusing Google of unfairly dominating the online advertising market. Thanks to its “long-standing monopolies in digital advertising technologies,” the company earns an average of more than 30 percent of its ad dollars from its various ad tech products, according to the lawsuit.

2024: Google Fights for a Trial in Court

The government had initially planned to have its antitrust lawsuit heard by a jury in the fall because the lawsuit included a claim for damages. In July, Google managed to avoid a jury trial by providing a check for $2.3 million covering the damages sought and interest, ensuring that the case would be heard by a judge. The case, which began this week, is expected to last several weeks.