A U.S. Department of Justice lawyer questioned a Google executive Wednesday about the techniques the search and advertising giant uses to allegedly unfairly increase online advertising prices.
Adam Juda, Google’s vice president of product management, testified in a first-of-its-kind antitrust trial in Washington in which the United States accuses Google of abusing its dominance in search and advertising, saying the company uses one formula: including quality an ad to decide who wins auctions used to place advertising on websites.
Adam Judah’s testimony began on Tuesday and continued on Wednesday.
The Justice Department accuses Google of manipulating online auctions – a multi-billion dollar business dominated by Google – and using these formulas to favor its own results.
David Dahlquist, a Justice Department lawyer, asked Mr. Judah whether he agreed with a document Google prepared for the European Union that said the company could “directly influence prices through biased adjustments to our auction mechanisms.” Mr. Judah replied negatively.
Asked whether the “adjustments” could affect prices, Mr Judah replied: “They can.”
Mr. Juda said a rough formula that gives an ad a long-term value, or LTV, based on the bid given, the potential click-through rate or the number of people likely to click on the ad, as well as the quality of the ad and the associated ad Website can be “customized”.
Google’s advertising business has been criticized by advertisers and website publishers for a lack of transparency. Both accused Google of skimming off too much revenue.
The advertising statement represents a change from previous statements that focused on the billions of dollars Google has spent making its search engine standard on smartphones and other devices.