A View from the US vs. Google Press Box Trial

This week on the podcast, we begin by reviewing the four antitrust issues at stake in the Google antitrust trial—the ad server, the ad network, the ad exchange, and the bundling of those products—and analyze the most standout testimony of the week.

On Wednesday, Matthew Wheatland, the Daily Mail’s chief digital officer, testified about its efforts to change ad servers. Last week, on the stand and with recently released documents, the judge heard about News Corp’s “Project Cinderella,” its failed attempt to change ad servers.

Taken together, that testimony paints a compelling picture for the judge, says Check My Ads Intelligence Director Arielle Garcia, who attended every day of the hearing and joined us as a guest this week. She noted that the judge doesn’t seem to want to spend much more time hearing testimony on the ad server claim.

Eight days into the trial, Garcia made a bet on how the trial would end.

“Ad server. I can’t imagine a world where that claim doesn’t work,” Garcia said on the podcast today, recorded after the hearing ended Wednesday. “Another claim is a binding claim,” she added, or a claim that the products were tied together in a monopolistic way. “I would be shocked if that didn’t work.”

The caveat? Google could argue that the digital ad market is different from the display-focused market described by the DOJ, which would make the case fall apart. But Garcia isn’t convinced that a “jazz hands” approach to redesigning the market will work.

Bonus: Does Judge Brinkema buy the argument that some of the claims companies make on their slides don’t count because they’re investment-bashing that’s simply part of pitch decks? Garcia said the judge’s comments suggest she understands the bragging that’s part of tech culture.