Judge rules Google abused monopoly in digital ad network [Video]

SAN FRANCISCO — Google has been branded an abusive monopolist by a federal judge for the second time in less than a year, this time for illegally exploiting some of its online marketing technology to boost the profits fueling an internet empire currently worth $1.8 trillion.

The ruling issued Thursday by U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema in Virginia comes on the heels of a separate decision in August that concluded Google’s namesake search engine has been illegally leveraging its dominance to stifle competition and innovation.

After the U.S. Justice Department targeted Google’s ubiquitous search engine during President Donald Trump’s first term, the same agency went after the company’s lucrative digital advertising network in 2023 during President Joe Biden’s ensuing administrationin an attempt to undercut the power that Google has amassed since its inception in a Silicon Valley …