The following statement can be attributed to Sumit Sharma, Executive Director for NextGen Competition:

“Though we have not yet seen the final opinion, in our view the government had a strong case to ask for a break-up. News reports indicated that in 2022, Google offered to split parts of its business that auction and place ads on websites and apps into a separate company under the Alphabet umbrella to head off this lawsuit: an acknowledgment of the conflicts of interest at the heart of this case.

We are disappointed that the court has ordered only behavioral remedies with no separation to address these conflicts of interest.

Given the complicated and often obscured ways ad-tech markets are structured and operate, it will be difficult for any outside party to implement and monitor behavioral remedies. We are skeptical that behavioral remedies will be sufficient to allow competitors to challenge Google’s dominant position in ad tech and provide meaningful relief to publishers, advertisers, or consumers who ultimately end up paying for inflated advertising charges via higher prices.”

About NextGen Competition

NextGen Competition is on a mission to create a fair and competitive technology ecosystem that empowers consumers, workers, and small businesses by supporting robust enforcement of antitrust laws and policies. Our aim is to enable many independent technology companies to innovate, compete, and offer differentiated services, and to rectify the profound imbalance of power that allows the largest technology firms to unilaterally set terms and conditions for everyone, use our data, and capture our attention without meaningful constraints.