Neal Mohan, the CEO of Google-owned YouTube, testified in federal court on Monday that Google faced ample competition in the ad tech market and laughably claimed the company acts in the best interest of consumers and the ad industry.
The New York Times reports that as the antitrust trial against Google enters its second week, YouTube CEO Neal Mohan took the stand to refute accusations by the Justice Department that the company crushed rivals as it became an advertising technology behemoth. Mohan, who joined Google as part of its acquisition of the advertising software company DoubleClick in 2008, argued that the search giant’s success in the ad tech market was due to its product innovation and the quality of services it offered to business customers, including publishers and advertisers.
The Justice Department, along with eight states, filed a lawsuit against Google last year, alleging that the company abused its control of ad technology and violated antitrust law, partly through the acquisition of DoubleClick. The government contends that Google’s actions have pushed up ad prices and harmed publishers by taking a significant cut of each sale.
Mohan’s testimony attempted to counter these claims, emphasizing that Google expanded into various areas of ad technology in response to demands from its clients. “Google’s success falls back to one single thing: product innovation and the sale and services we were able to offer,” he stated before the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Breitbart News previously reported on what we learned from the first week of the antitrust trial:
During the first day of the trial, the DOJ laid out their accusations, claiming that Google controls the advertiser ad network, dominates the publisher ad server, and runs the ad exchange connecting the two. In response, Google disputed the definition of open-web display ads and argued that the DOJ’s market definition is “gerrymandered,” meaning that the DOJ is manipulating the boundaries of their definition to portray Google as the bad guy. Google also presented a chart showing competitors like Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, and TikTok.
On the second day, Stephanie Layser, a former ad executive at News Corp, testified that Google’s ad tools leave publishers feeling “stuck” due to the high revenue risk associated with switching ad servers. She explained that 40-60% of NewsCorp’s revenue came from AdX, with a majority of that coming from Google Ads demand. Jay Friedman, CEO of Goodway Group, criticized Google’s variable pricing, describing it as “gaming the system” and highlighting Google’s inherent conflict of interest in controlling both the buy- and sell-side of the ad market.
The third day of the trial focused on Google’s access to vast user data through platforms like YouTube and Search, which gives them a significant competitive advantage and makes it difficult for other platforms to thrive. Other key themes argued included Google’s control over ad servers stifling competition and innovation, as well as practices like First Look and Dynamic Revenue Share favoring Google at the expense of publishers.
On the fourth day, testimony from former Google employees and competitors shed light on Google’s efforts to maintain control over ad pricing and suppress competition. Internal emails revealed that Google considered lowering its take rate to ease publisher concerns but ultimately decided to push ahead with changes that reduced transparency and control for publishers.
This antitrust trial is the second one Google has faced in a year, with a federal judge ruling in August that the company had illegally maintained a monopoly over online search in a separate case. The judge must now decide how to address the issues with Google’s search business.
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