How breaking up Google could lower your online shopping bill
As the US Department of Justice aims to break up Google's alleged ad tech monopoly, experts say that remedies sought in the antitrust trial could potentially benefit not just advertisers and publishers but also everyone targeted by ads online.
So far, the DOJ has argued that through acquisitions, Google allegedly monopolizes the ad server market, taking a substantial cut of every online ad sale by tying together products on the buyer and seller sides. Locking publishers into using its seller-side platform to access its large advertiser demand, Google also allegedly shut out rivals by pushing advertisers into a corner, then making it hard for publishers to switch platforms.
This scheme also allegedly set Google up to charge higher "monopoly" fees, the DOJ argued, allegedly putting some publishers out of business and raising costs for advertisers.
But while the harms to publishers and advertisers have been outlined at length, there's been less talk about the seemingly major consequences for consumers perhaps harmed by the alleged monopoly. Those harms include higher costs of goods, less privacy, and increasingly lower-quality ads that frequently bombard their screens with products nobody wants.
