Accountable Tech Co-Founder and Executive Director Nicole Gill issued the following statement Thursday in response to Judge Leonie Brinkema’s ruling against Google’s abusive ad practices:

“Today’s landmark ruling confirms what we’ve known for years: Google has illegally monopolized the ad tech ecosystem to suppress competition and exploit publishers – ultimately harming consumers. By tying its publisher ad server (DFP) and ad exchange (AdX) together, Google effectively locked out rivals and extracted billions from struggling news outlets and independent publishers who had no choice but to play a game Google rigged entirely in its favor.  One trillion-dollar corporation controlled every layer of the digital ad pipeline and weaponized that power to favor its own marketplace and raise prices for everyone.

Let’s be clear: Google has had unchecked power to dictate terms to publishers and advertisers for years. This monopoly forced consumers to submit to its surveillance advertising business model, an extractive practice whereby Google pervasively tracks and profiles people for the purpose of selling hyper-personalized ads and bolstering its own adtech dominance. As Accountable Tech has shown in the past, this toxic business model hurts Americans in multiple ways, from manipulating consumers and fleecing small businesses to perpetuating discrimination and preying on children.

We applaud today’s ruling and urge the Department of Justice and State Attorneys General to continue to pursue bold reforms that will permanently end Google’s monopoly and exploitation of consumer data. This decision is a massive victory that’s been a long time coming. But it’s not the end of this fight to create a fairer, safer online ecosystem.” 

Accountable Tech has long fought to hold accountable Big Tech companies for the pervasive harm caused by their profit-driven manipulation: 

• In 2021, Accountable Tech petitioned the FTC to ban surveillance advertising as an ‘unfair method of competition,’ perpetuating Big Tech’s ability and incentive to propagate anticompetitive harms, including the invasion of privacy, degradation of services, and the exploitation of publishing and advertising markets.
• In 2021, Accountable Tech uplifted stories in a campaign, Main Street Against Big Tech, of small businesses hurt by Big Tech business practices. Entrepreneurs testified they had no choice but to use the services provided by Google to access digital markets. This dominance enabled Google to hurt small businesses by providing misleading and unreliable data, imposing hidden costs, designing confusing interfaces, and more.
• Accountable Tech assembled an international coalition of more than 50 civil rights, privacy, and antitrust organizations to call for a ban on surveillance advertising.

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About Accountable Tech

Accountable Tech is a non-profit organization advocating for digital justice by reining in Big Tech’s threats to society and democracy with legislative, regulatory, and structural solutions. Through strategic initiatives and creative campaigns, Accountable Tech is challenging the industry’s toxic business model in order to protect data privacy, preserve the health of democracy, and create safer online platforms. We are leading the movement to advance a better, more human-centered digital future, and tech for the common good. To learn more, visit accountabletech.org.