Republicans tear into Google after judge's huge ruling on ad monopoly (2025)

Sen. Josh Hawley is celebrating a landmark court case that found Google holds an illegal monopoly over online advertising technology.

'Huge news: Google officially found to have violated the antitrust laws,' the MissouriRepublican posted on X Thursday afternoon after a ruling was announced.

The decision vindicates dozens of companies that were disadvantaged by Google's practices worldwide.

Daily Mail's Chief Digital Officer Matthew Wheatland was a key witness in the case, fought by the Department of Justice, which proved the tech giant promotes anti-competitive practices in two key markets.

These two markets - the publisher ad server and ad exchange markets for open-web display advertising - were illegally controlled by Google's monopoly for the last decade, the judge ruled on Thursday.

Hawley has long been outspoken about Google's online monopoly, posting just last month how he hopes the company gets what it deserves after the firm exerted control over recent U.S. elections.

'Googleand Meta are massive monopolies with political agendas—and they're using their market power to control our elections,' he wrote. 'Google even rigged its search results to sway voters & tip elections.'

'And until we take away their power, nothing is going to change,' he continued.

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema granted, at least partially, Hawley's wish on Thursday.

Her rulingnoted how Google 'substantially harmed' web publishers and users with their monopoly which violated the Sherman Antitrust Act.

The big tech company, which is worth nearly $2 trillion total, was found liable for 'willfully acquiring and maintaining monopoly power' in the advertising technology industry.

'Plaintiffs have proven that Google has willfully engaged in a series of anticompetitive acts to acquire and maintain monopoly power in the publisher ad server and ad exchange markets for open-web display advertising,' Brinkema wrote in the ruling.

'For over a decade, Google has tied its publisher ad server and ad exchange together through contractual policies and technological integration, which enabled the company to establish and protect its monopoly power in these two markets,' she continued.

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, also celebrated the ruling.

'DOJ has won its antitrust ad tech case against Google, which was found liable for monopolistic behavior in violation of the Sherman Act,' he wrote.

Time to pass my AMERICA Act and break up the stranglehold on online advertising once and for all.'

The case represents a major win for the U.S. Department of Justice which has been pursing antitrust charges against the search engine since 2020.

It also marks the second major antitrust ruling against Google after the company was found in August 2024 to have illegally spent billions to entrench its position as the world's default search engine.

The tech giant was accused of operating a 'rapacious' monopoly and being an 'authoritarian intermediary' as it controls how publishers and advertisers interact.

The case centered on the billions of advertisements that are bought and sold daily on web pages, including those of news publishers like The Daily Mail.

The sales of the ads are 'programmatic,' meaning automated auctions are held in just milliseconds.

Google owns the biggest ad server, the technology tool used by publishers to sell the space on their sites, which is known as DFP. It also runs the main tool used by advertisers to buy the space, called Google Ads.

And it has the largest exchange where the instantaneous auctions take place, which is called AdX.

Fees for the three technology tools mean Google keeps over 30 cents of every advertising dollar that goes through them.

Now Google may be forced to sell off part of its advertising business, which has brought in over 10 percent of the company's revenue in recent years.