On Day 2 of the US DOJ's antitrust trial focused on ads, a former News Corp executive testifying as a government witness said Google held publishers “hostage”
Google's tool that lets publishers sell ad space on their websites is ubiquitous, but that's largely a testament …
Context & Ripple Effects
The testimony adds a publisher-side account to a DOJ case that had already opened with allegations that Google used acquisitions and scale to dominate ad technology. The dispute has been building since the agency began seeking input from publishers, agencies, and ad-tech rivals in its early ad-tools inquiry.
Publishers’ dependence on ad-tech intermediaries is also central to Gannett’s monopoly lawsuit, which argued that growing audiences had not translated into ad-spending gains. This trial evidence therefore matters beyond one publisher: it tests whether that dependence reflects ordinary market success or exclusionary leverage.
First-order effects
- The government gains testimony intended to support its account of publisher dependence on Google’s ad-selling tools; Google must counter that account as the trial record develops.
- News publishers’ complaints about bargaining power and revenue shares become more central to the case, rather than remaining a background concern in the DOJ’s opening allegations.
Second-order effects
- A stronger showing of publisher lock-in would sharpen scrutiny of the connections among the tools used to sell, buy, and operate web advertising, raising the stakes for Google’s ad-tech business.
- Rival ad platforms and publishers could have more to gain from any remedy that reduces reliance on Google’s intermediary role; related coverage identified Meta, Amazon, and publishers as possible beneficiaries of the case’s outcome.
Third-order effects
- If the DOJ establishes that control across ad-tech layers constrained publisher choice, antitrust enforcement could increasingly focus on platform infrastructure and contractual dependence, not just consumer-facing products.
- The case may become a test of whether remedies can create meaningful interoperability or competition in digital-ad markets without simply shifting gatekeeper power to other large platforms.
The trend: The trial is one data point in a broader push to examine how dominant digital platforms use control of essential business infrastructure to shape counterparties’ choices and economics.