Overview
- The DOJ presented internal Google documents showing the company knowingly altered ad pricing rules to regain control over the ad tech market.
- Google's Unified Pricing Rules (UPR) required publishers to set the same floor price for all ad exchanges, removing their ability to push Google harder by setting higher prices for AdX.
- Publishers expressed frustration at a 2019 meeting, arguing that UPR took away critical control and benefited Google at their expense.
- Google defended UPR as a move to improve auction transparency and fairness, claiming that publishers saw increased revenue after its implementation.
- The DOJ's evidence included emails and audio recordings suggesting Google took deliberate steps to thwart publishers' efforts to diversify revenue away from its platform.