Angry and disappointed, if not surprised: The ad industry reacts to the Google search remedies ruling 

That summarizes the response to yesterday’s remedies ruling in Google’s antitrust trial, with reactions varying from vehement criticism to resignation. 

In Justice Amit Mehta’s remedies judgment, which followed the 2024 ruling that Google’s search operations was a monopoly, Google avoided the worst-case scenario: a forced breakup.

After all, the Justice Department’s earlier stated goal was the divestiture of its Android OS and Chrome browser. See below for an abridged rundown of the rulings. 

No breakup

• The court rejected divestiture of Chrome or Android, calling it “overreach.”
• Impact: Regulators lose leverage; publishers/advertisers see no structural change in Google’s dominance.

Data and syndication access

• Google must share limited search data (not ads) and offer rivals syndication services to support competition.
• Impact: Competing search providers benefit most, helping them improve scale and relevance.

Auction transparency

• Google must disclose major ad auction changes to prevent hidden price hikes.
• Impact: Advertisers gain greater visibility into pricing mechanics, curbing sudden cost spikes.

Restrictions on exclusivity

• Google cannot tie Search, Chrome, Assistant, or Gemini to Play Store deals or revenue-share terms; partners can freely distribute rivals.
• Impact: Device makers and rival search engines gain room to compete on defaults.

Rejected remedies

• No bans on partner payments, or requirements for extra advertiser data, or limits on publisher content rules. 
• Impact: Google avoids burdensome limits; publishers and advertisers see the status quo preserved.

Both the DOJ and Google claimed their side of the argument was recognized by the court, with the former claiming it won significant remedies The latter claimed it recognized how divesting Chrome and Android would have gone beyond the case’s focus.

“The court’s ruling today recognizes the need for remedies that will pry open the market for general search services,” read a DOJ statement. “The ruling also recognizes the need to prevent Google from using the same anticompetitive tactics for its GenAI products.” 

Meanwhile, Google’s statement underlined its argument that AI has changed the competitive landscape and further hinted at a pending appeal. “This underlines what we’ve been saying since this case was filed in 2020: Competition is intense… We have concerns about how these requirements will impact our users and their privacy, and we’re reviewing the decision closely.”   

Angry and disappointed 

Alphabet’s share price spiked in the early hours after the September 2 ruling, with the decision coming as a surprise to many of the leading voices in digital media, especially given the DOJ’s momentum — two-for-two in recent years. 

“Alphabet’s stock price up 7% after hours — all you need to know about how punitive this is for them,” noted prominent industry consultant Matt Prohaska, who surmised that this decision is reflective of Big Tech overtures toward the current U.S. administration. 

“Obviously, we have to take into account the context of where our country and our government and courts are today… given who was in the cheering section on Inauguration Day,” he opined, alluding to the presence of Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai at the swearing-in of President Trump earlier in the year. 

Prohaska further pointed to the proposed Technical Committee — this entity of five (as yet unnamed) members will assist the court in implementing its remedies — alleging that the wording of the ruling points to a vulnerability of it being controlled by Google. 

“Talk about the ultimate example of being able to continue grading your own homework,” he said. “Now they’re being allowed to determine their own punishment.”

Similarly, TAU Marketing Solutions’ Robert Webster claimed the developments will do little to alter Google’s dominance of the advertising market, expressing hope that the pending makeup of the Technical Committee will sharpen the decision.

“What a f*cking rip,” he said, “everyone who said that Google was going to get hit by this really badly has been proven wrong… this is really disappointing because there’s nothing here to trim Google’s wings at all.” 

Disrupting the Apple cart?

For Webster, the most interesting discussion point coming out of this ruling is that it doesn’t bar Google from paying for default search placements on devices or services. 

However, it does prohibit it from insisting upon exclusivity, which will likely have an impact on Google’s relationship with Apple — one that sees it pay $20 billion each year to be the default search engine on the iPhone, per court documents. “That’s one of the biggest business deals in history, so I’m curious how that applies,” he noted.   

Meanwhile, noted equities analyst Brian Wieser of Madison & Wall voiced his belief that the spike in Alphabet’s share price was reflective of his view that Google’s search revenues would not be adversely impacted.

In fact, per his assessment, there was little likelihood of the online giant being dealt a knockout blow in this case, as Google’s competitive advantage extends beyond search, including better sales strategies and integrations. 

“For the things I am focused on, which is where the money is coming from… it never seemed likely that this would destroy the business,” he said, adding that rival AI-providers would have had limited benefit from a forced sale of Chrome. 

“If Open AI had bid for [and won] it, and then they could light up a sales force,” he said, adding that it would take “two or three years” for this to have some impact on Google’s business. “Would it impact the business? Sure, of course, but it’s not like they’re standing still, either.” 

Meanwhile, for U of Digital’s Myles Younger, the latest decision is not a surprise; in fact, he draws parallels to Google’s U-turn on its five-plus year deliberations over retiring third-party cookies in Chrome.

“Chrome has such a dominant position that, no matter which side you advocate for… some set of constituents in the market will get hurt, no matter what choice is made,” he noted. 

“The part that doesn’t surprise me is that regulating authorities all over the world, like the Competition Markets Authority in the U.K., were having difficulty in figuring out which was the right choice.” 

Younger further pointed out that web browsers, in the context of the internet era, are an aging technology — after all, the only historical antitrust case comparable to this one concerns Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and dates back to the previous century, especially with the advent of AI. 

“Internet browsers as a technology are literally 30 years old,” he said, adding that authorities will have to weigh up the benefits of “causing a bunch of upheaval in a marketplace for technology that has already entered a period of structural decline.”

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