By Mark Beckett
Publication Date: 2026-10-07 05:00:00
This post was sponsored by Silver Arbitration Law, PLLC. The opinions expressed in this article are the sponsor’s own.
If you manage Google Search campaigns, you have explained rising CPCs many times: more competitors, broader match types, a lower Quality Score, an account that needed restructuring. Each explanation is plausible.
I have worked in arbitration since before Google existed, as both counsel and arbitrator. Below I set out what the record shows: what the court found, which auction changes it named and when they ran, and what you would have to establish about your own account before any of it applies to you.
Why The Search Antitrust Ruling Matters For Digital Paid Marketers & Advertisers
In August 2024, after a ten-week trial, the court found that Google “has exercised its monopoly power by charging supracompetitive prices for general search text ads” (Mem. Op. at 4).
Supracompetitive means above the price a competitive market would produce.
The…
