What the judge decided
Late Wednesday in Manhattan, US District Judge P. Kevin Castel held that allegations of injury stemming from Alphabet's Google monopolizing advertising technology markets should be decided by juries. The opinion focuses on whether Google's actions tied to its AdX exchange injured major publishers, and it keeps those questions alive for trial. Castel has not yet put a trial on the calendar.
The money at stake
Castel rejected Google's effort to upend the damage models and said a certified class of roughly 5,000 publishers can try to recover about $1.7 billion. On top of that, USA Today Co. and Daily Mail, which filed their own suits, may seek about $900 million and about $600 million, respectively.
What the parties are saying and the broader backdrop
Google said the decision also tossed claims from certain publishers that relied on a different ad buying tool and added it will "defend the rest in court." USA Today Co.'s chief legal counsel, Polly Grunfeld Sack, said, "The ruling allows USA Today Co. to pursue its $1 billion in worldwide damages (before trebling under the antitrust laws), a significant victory that streamlines our path to recovery," adding that they look forward to proving their claims at trial. Philip Korologos of Boies Schiller Flexner LLP, counsel to the publishers, said they are eager to present the class's claims at trial and seek damages.
In a related case, the US Justice Department and a coalition of states sued Google in 2023 over control of key parts of the ad tech stack used to buy, sell, and serve online display ads. A federal judge in Virginia later concluded Google illegally monopolized two ad tech markets, ordered it to make its tools interoperable with rivals last month, and declined to force a breakup. The New York cases are pursuing damages tied to the same conduct.
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Titled In re: Google Digital Advertising Antitrust Litigation, 21-md-3010, the matter is pending in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York. USA Today and the Daily Mail didn't immediately comment.
Why this matters for your wallet
If you care about how much of your ad dollars actually reach publishers, this fight is about the pipes that move that money. Court-ordered changes to how Google's ad tech works and the prospect of multibillion-dollar damages could shift fees, margins, and bargaining power across the online ad market, with knock-on effects for the websites and apps you use every day.
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