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A Monopoly Horror Story
If you have missed it somehow, in September 2024, a landmark trial took place: The United States v. Google antitrust trial, in which the Department of Justice accused Google of illegally monopolizing the digital advertising industry. Specifically, Google owned every step of the ad trading process — the tools publishers use to sell ad space, tools advertisers use to buy it, and the exchange where it is bought and traded. In the months following the trial, Google was found to be an illegal monopoly.
We covered the trial in person and hands-on. Our daily trial recaps, resources, and news related to the courtroom live at usvgoogleads.com, if you want to revisit how it all started.
A crucial part of any antitrust case is remedies mandated by the court. In other words, what has to be done to make sure anticompetitive behaviour stops and does not happen again. After 16 months of weighing its decision, on September 2, 2026, Judge Brinkema issued a remedies order.
Google Lives to Haunt Another Day
As many have expected, the remedies for Google's abuse of its adtech monopoly will only be behavioral — not structural in nature. What is unchanged is that Google keeps ownership of both the buy and sell sides of the digital advertising supply chain, plus the exchange in the middle, but it comes with a pinky promise to change its behaviour.
Much ink has been spilt on what these remedies could mean for the ad ecosystem (see Ari Paparo's commentary, for example). Generally, behavioural remedies are the weaker tool: they ask a conflicted company to police its own conflicts. Yet in a market this riddled with self-dealing, many still hope that rules on conduct can at least narrow the gap. Others think hope is what keeps suffering alive.
Will Europe Disappoint?
Those rooting for structural remedies are now looking across the Atlantic. The European Commission has already fined Google €2.95 billion over essentially the same practices, and it too must decide on remedies. With a US judge having opted for behavioural measures, it seems unlikely Brussels will go further. Unlikely, but not impossible.
The political climate in Europe is different. Google has become the face of Big Tech, and Big Tech is increasingly seen as a threat to the foundations of European democracy. Civil society groups have taken that message to the Commission’s doorstep, protesting outside its Brussels headquarters and demanding that Google be broken up.
No decision is imminent, and seasoned observers have learned to brace for disappointment. Still, many eyes are on the Commission, waiting to see whether it can pull something out of its hat.
Action! Join us in Killing the Cookie Banner in the EU
We joined a coalition of like-minded folks who love cookies, just not this kind.
Cookie banners: those annoying pop-ups that appear on every website to explain how your data is tracked and stored, and to ask your permission. In theory, this is a good idea, great even. In practice? Spend 5 minutes online, hopping from site to site and answering the same prompt each time — and by the third one you’re hitting “accept all” just to make it stop.
That "cookie fatigue" that you are experiencing is by design. The advertising industry wants data.
The Kill the Cookie Banner coalition wants to move this user choice into our browser settings, so your preferences are communicated automatically. One question, asked one time. It’s not a new concept, but it would mean far fewer people clicking “accept all”, and less data for adtech, which is why it hasn’t happened yet.
That’s where you come in. Visit killthecookiebanner.eu and contact your local representative in the European Parliament.
Friends of Fair Ads
Check My Ads joined the United to Stop Online Scams coalition’s National Day of Action because 9 in 10 people are targeted by scams every month, and that is far too many. Something has to give. At this point, it is a platform problem, not a user problem. While the National Day of Action has passed, your story is still important and worth sharing — visit United to Stop Scams website and share yours.
There’s plenty more brewing. Next time, we’ll dig deeper into the Google adtech case, the Kill the Cookie Banner coalition and what both could mean for the ad ecosystem. Until then, thanks for reading.
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