By Mike Scarcella
(Reuters) -A U.S. judge has set a May 2 hearing to discuss remedies the U.S. Justice Department and a group of states might ask the court to impose on Google after it ruled the Alphabet unit illegally dominates two markets for online advertising technology.
U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema, in the Alexandria, Virginia federal court, indicated the hearing aims to get an early and broad sense of the potential remedies before focusing on specific measures.
The hearing will come after Brinkema in a blockbuster order on April 17 found Google liable for “willfully acquiring and maintaining monopoly power” in markets for publisher ad servers and the market for ad exchanges that sit between buyers and sellers.
Google and the Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Brinkema presided over a non-jury trial last year before issuing her opinion this month. She will eventually decide how Google must restore competition in those markets, such as by selling off parts of its business.
The judge’s ruling was the second that declared Google to hold an illegal monopoly.
U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta in Washington in August 2024 ruled Google used exclusive agreements with Samsung Electronics and others to bolster its alleged search engine monopoly.
Mehta in that lawsuit, also filed by the Justice Department, is now weighing whether to force Google to sell its popular Chrome web browser as one remedy to restore competition in search.
Google has denied the government’s claims in both antitrust lawsuits.
Google has not offered Chrome for sale. The company has said that it plans to appeal the two rulings that it holds an illegal monopoly in search and advertising markets.
(Reporting by Mike Scarcella; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
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