Federal Judge P. Kevin Castel in the Southern District of New York ruled on Wednesday evening that USA Today Co., parent company of the Daily Mail, Daily Mail General and Trust, and a group of major publishers can claim over $3.2 billion in damages from Google for monopolizing the advertising technology market.

He allowed a jury to examine how Google's advertising trading platform AdX harmed major publishers. A class action lawsuit involving about 5,000 publishers can pursue approximately $1.7 billion. USA Today and Daily Mail are suing separately, allowed to seek about $900 million and $600 million, respectively. Experts estimate Gannett's damages at about $901 million and Daily Mail at about $600 million. The class action expert calculates damages of about $1.72 billion up to March 31, 2024, with further accumulation thereafter.

This is not a final payout. Publishers still need to prove the causal relationship between the damages and the relevant actions in court, as well as the amounts. The opinion spans 88 pages, rejecting Google's request to dismiss the main claims before trial and sending the AdX-related claims to the jury.

The ruling is not entirely unfavorable. Castel supported Google's dismissal of Gannett and Daily Mail's claims under New York General Business Law, also dismissing claims from The Progressive and Inform's federal antitrust claims. Google stated that the ruling dismissed claims from some publishers using another advertising purchasing tool, while the remaining claims will be defended in court.

The claims are anchored in the advertising exchange segment, not search rankings. Publishers accuse AdX and related bundling of raising transaction commissions and lowering net revenue from advertising inventory. The class action covers about 5,000 publishers, while the two separately suing media outlets broke down their amounts into $900 million and $600 million, indicating that major publishers chose to calculate independently rather than waiting for a collective distribution.

The buyers are publishers seeking refunds for advertising technology commissions, while the sellers are Google, which still controls AdX. This is a litigation-driven contingent liability, not a shift in advertising budgets. If the jury supports the claims, beneficiaries will be USA Today, Daily Mail, and class members. The pressure is on Google's historical commission from its advertising technology business and the bargaining position of publishers still bringing inventory to AdX. The ruling itself does not change existing bidding but opens up compensation calculations.

$3.2 billion is the maximum claimable amount, not a determined amount. Publishers using another purchasing tool have been excluded from this round of claims.

Source: Public Information