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On Tuesday the US justice department sued Google, alleging that the company has a monopoly over the digital advertising market. In reality, they are probably correct, as the FT points out with this image below, Google dominates almost the entire value chain of the industry.
The legal case is not talking about competitors in the general digital ad space or even in search. Amazon, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Apple have very large digital advertising platforms. The problem is Google's dominance over the technology that allows advertisers and website owners to offer advertising space, buy advertising space, and the exchange where adverts are bought and sold. It certainly does highlight what a wonderful business they have built.
The US government has a terrible track record when trying to break up large US businesses. Fortunately in the beacon of capitalism called America, there is a bias towards protecting companies from political interference. This is now the 5th case the department has brought against Google since 2020.
We will keep an eye on this closely but our general view is that Google will either win the case, pay a modest settlement or make it run for so long that the DOJ will give up.
