The United States a federal judge has ruled that Google maintains an illegal monopoly in the online advertising market, marking the second such legal blow to the tech giant in less than a year.

The ruling came on Thursday, April 17,  from Judge Leonie Brinkema in Virginia, who determined that Google had secured and maintained dominance in the online advertising space on certain platforms through unfair competition. The court’s decision centred on tools used for placing digital ads.

According to the ruling, the consequences of Google’s conduct will be determined in a subsequent legal proceeding.

This decision follows a separate antitrust ruling last August, when a judge in Washington concluded that Google held a monopoly in internet search and had protected it through anti-competitive practices. That case represented a significant win for U.S. competition regulators and added to growing scrutiny of Google’s business operations.

The latest case, filed by the U.S. government in 2023, accused Google of violating competition laws in two out of three advertising markets. The Justice Department is now seeking remedies that could include forcing Google to divest major business segments such as its Chrome web browser and Android mobile operating system.

Reacting to the ruling, Google said it plans to appeal. “We disagree with the Court’s decision regarding our publisher tools. Publishers have many options, and they choose Google because our ad tech tools are simple, affordable and effective,” Lee-Anne Mulholland, Google’s vice president for regulatory affairs, stated in a post on X.

A trial to determine the appropriate consequences of the court’s ruling is scheduled to begin next week, as regulators continue to push for structural changes to Google’s dominance in the digital economy.

Source: GNA