The US Department of Justice accused Google of running a massive ad tech monopoly that cut off potential rivals and drove up costs for publishers and advertisers in an attempt to maximise profits, as the latest antitrust trial against Big Tech got under way on Monday.
“No one wins” — except Google, a lawyer for the DoJ, Julia Tarver Wood, said during her opening statement in a federal court in Virginia.
The trial comes just weeks after a judge in Washington issued a landmark verdict in another DoJ antitrust case against Google, finding it had monopolised the market for online search. A decision on how to punish Google is expected next year.