The Morning Risk Report: Judge Rules Google Operates Illegal Ad Monopoly By Richard Vanderford | Dow Jones Risk Journal

Good morning. Alphabet's Google created a monopoly that allowed it to control parts of the online-advertising industry, a federal judge ruled Thursday, a decision that could upend one of the technology giant's core businesses.

The ruling marked the second time in eight months that a U.S. judge labeled Google an illegal monopolist-and could lead the Justice Department to seek a forced sale of some of the company's advertising products.

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema said Google's monopoly in ad exchanges and server markets violated the Sherman Antitrust Act, harming advertisers and consumers.

Alphabet's shares fell 1.5% in Thursday trading. The company plans to appeal the ruling.

The Week Google and Meta Faced an Antitrust Reckoning Events

Investment firms are faced with a range of shifting risks, ranging from geopolitics to cybercrime and regulatory risk.

Dow Jones Risk & Compliance will host a webinar on April 29 to discuss these risks with Scott Pomfret, a former chief compliance officer and Securities and Exchange Commission trial attorney. You can register here .

Compliance

U.K.'s Serious Fraud Office charges insurer with bribing officials in Ecuador.

The U.K.'s Serious Fraud Office on Thursday filed charges against United Insurance Brokers for allegedly failing to prevent its associates from bribing Ecuadorean officials to win reinsurance contracts.

The SFO, which prosecutes white-collar crime in the U.K., alleged that between 2013 and 2016, the company's U.S.- based intermediaries for Ecuador paid bribes to state insurers there to win contracts worth $38 million.

If the case goes to trial, it would be the first time a jury hears a failure-to-prevent-bribery case brought by the SFO, the agency said.

The Trump administration is moving forward with plans to drastically curtail the work of the government's consumer-finance watchdog after a legal victory, including by slashing the vast majority of the agency's workforce.

The U.S. has sanctioned the International Bank of Yemen for allegedly providing financial support to the Houthis, a move the Trump administration said complements its "whole-of-government effort" to stop attacks by the Iran-backed militant group against commercial shipping.

President Trump's media company asked financial regulators to investigate alleged suspicious trading activity in its stock.

The U.S. Treasury Department has sanctioned a China-based independent refinery for allegedly purchasing more than a billion dollars worth of Iranian crude oil, including from an alleged front company for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force.

A U.S. congressional committee has urged two U.S. banks to pull out of working on Chinese battery giant Contemporary Amperex Technology's planned listing in Hong Kong, expressing "significant concerns" over their involvement in the process.

When Paul Atkins takes office as head of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, he will find a list of Wall Street demands on his desk.

The Trump administration has threatened to stop international students from attending Harvard University as part of a growing pressure campaign against the nation's most prominent university. Risk

Americans worry over negative impact of China tariffs.

As a trade war with Beijing heats up, a new survey shows Americans view bilateral economic ties as less beneficial to the U.S. than China but also hold skeptical views about addressing the relationship with tariffs.

China and leader Xi Jinping remain deeply unpopular in the U.S., according to the survey of attitudes about the Asian nation from Pew Research Center, published Thursday. It showed that China is seen as an increasingly powerful challenger to the U.S. and that nearly half of Americans view trade as unbalanced in China's favor. In similar numbers, they said increased tariffs on China would be bad for the U.S. and for them personally.

"Regardless of what they think about the trade relationship, they're divided about whether tariffs will be good for the country," said Christine Huang, a Pew research associate and lead author on the report.

The global economy will grow more slowly as a result of the tariffs imposed by U.S. President Trump and counter measures taken by other countries, but it will avoid a recession , the head of the International Monetary Fund said Thursday.

In the two weeks since President Trump unleashed his sweeping set of reciprocal tariffs, many U.S. trade partners have a clear plan to convince Washington against reimposing stiff duties on their exports to the U.S.: Buy more American goods .

The era of ultra-calm markets is now a distant memory .

President Trump said he would have "very little problem" making a deal with the European Union to reduce tariffs in exchange for access to a U.S. market that he said has "something everyone wants."

Economic uncertainty and rising material costs from tariffs is darkening the outlook for newly built homes.

President Trump is threatening to fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell unless he cuts interest rates to cushion the blow from his tariffs. Executive Insights

Here is our weekly roundup of stories from across WSJ Pro that we think you'll find useful.

President Trump wants to rapidly revive the U.S.'s commercial shipping fleet as a matter of national security. America doesn't have enough sailors to do it.

Nuclear energy is hot again . Can AI help manage the power plants?

U.S. private-equity exits and their total value rose in the first quarter from a year ago, but recent market volatility puts that momentum at risk .

J.M. Smucker, the owner of Hostess baked goods like Twinkies and Ding Dongs, is courting a new group of snackers : stoners. What Else Matters The Energy Department is preparing dramatic cuts that could halt nearly $10 billion in federal funding for clean-energy projects-and some of its highest profile partnerships with Exxon Mobil and Occidental Petroleum are at stake.

The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to hear oral arguments next month over the legality of President Trump's executive order ending birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants and foreign residents.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. would pause its efforts to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine if progress isn't made in the coming days, in an attempt to put pressure on Kyiv and Moscow to compromise.

At least six people were hurt after a shooting at Florida State University in Tallahassee, a hospital official said.

A Chinese halt on Boeing aircraft purchases, if sustained, risks backfiring on China's homegrown plane maker Comac before the upstart is globally competitive. About Us

Follow us on X at @WSJRisk . Send tips to our reporters Mengqi Sun at [mengqi.sun@wsj.com] and Richard Vanderford at [richard.vanderford@wsj.com].

You can also reach us by replying to any newsletter, or by emailing our editor David Smagalla at [david.smagalla@wsj.com].

This article is a text version of a Wall Street Journal newsletter published earlier today.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 18, 2025 07:25 ET (11:25 GMT)

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