News Summary

• In August 2024, after a ten-week trial, the court found that Google “has exercised its monopoly power by charging supracompetitive prices for general search text ads” The trial record showed that Google’s ads team used internal “ pricing knobs ” that raised what a winning ad paid without any change in bids, ad quality or competition.
• “[m]any advertisers do not even realize that Google is responsible for the changes in price”