• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, July 10, 2024

The Department of Justice (DOJ) recently published a witness list for Google's antitrust trial and the names represent a who's who in advertising.

The 68 names include past and present Google employees. Some will testify live -- noted by a "L" in the filing -- while others will submit testimonies via deposition, noted by a "D." Some will submit testimonies both live and by deposition.

The trial is set to begin on September 9 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia with Judge Leonie Brinkema presiding.

The full published list includes descriptions and titles, along with the years in which the person worked or still works for Google. Some of those still working at Google include Ali Nasiri Amini, vice president of engineering and data science for Google and YouTube, Tim Craycroft, vice president and general manager of Google Advertising, and Duke Dukellis, vice president of product management at Google.

Matthew Wheatland, chief digital officer at DailyMail.com, is also on the witness list. A spokesperson emailed a statement to Media Daily News in response.

“For more than a decade, Google has unlawfully maintained a monopoly over the tools that publishers and advertisers use to buy and sell online ad space,” the spokesperson wrote. “It has used illegal practices, including bid rigging and the manipulation of online ad auctions and search results, to earn exorbitant profits at the expense of publishers and advertising technology rivals.”

The spokesperson went on to write that news publishers rely on digital ad revenue to provide consumers with a range of reliable news sources, but Google’s behavior has “depressed online ad revenues, inflicting serious harm on publishers, and reducing the amount and quality of news available to readers.”

Associated Newspapers in April 2021 became the first news publisher to launch a legal action against Google and its parent Alphabet to hold them accountable for what the publication deems anticompetitive behavior in the online advertising market. 

There is no way to determine the duration of the trial or whether all the witnesses will participate. 

The lawsuit, filed in January 2023, accuses Google of monopolizing the digital advertising market and undermining competition.

Some government officials believe Google should be forced to sell its ad manager suite.

Last month, a federal judge rejected Google's bid for judgment in its favor. MediaPost reported that "authorities sought monetary damages and a court order that would require Google to unwind its 2008 acquisition of DoubleClick and 2011 purchase of AdMeld."