The U.S. Department of Justice’s ruling this week that Google acted illegally to maintain its monopoly in search is a landmark decision against Big Tech with reverberations to come for the media ecosystem. 

The case brought to a close an investigation that began in 2020, when the DOJ sued Google for controlling a 90% share of the global search market. At the crux of the case was Google’s more than $10 billion in payments annually to Apple, Samsung and Mozilla to be pre-installed as the default search engine across their platforms and devices.

While remedies have not been issued yet, in addition to a fine, law experts believe Google may be required to end these payments to maintain its default position on other devices and inform users about other search engines on its own devices — giving Microsoft an open door to build its search business. 

Google plans to appeal the ruling arguing that the DOJ’s decision “recognizes that Google offers the best search engine, but concludes that we shouldn’t be allowed to make it easily available.”

Meanwhile, Google stands trial in another antitrust case regarding its monopoly power in ad tech, set to go to trial in September. A more emboldened DOJ could spell trouble for the tech giant.

We asked media buyers: How will the DOJ’s decision impact your investments in Google search and other search engines? What could it portend about Google’s second antitrust case regarding ad tech?

Below are their responses. 

Joseph Kerschbaum, SVP of search and growth labs, Dept

This ruling will impact Google from a market share perspective, but it doesn’t necessarily mean doomsday. If consumers are given a choice of a default search engine, they are likely to choose Google — at least for now. It’s too early to say what kind of impact the ruling will have on Google’s future market share in search and whether it will benefit Microsoft’s Bing. But Microsoft is always hopeful! 

This deal is likely to also moderately harm Apple. Rest assured, the ruling won’t catch Apple flat-footed. The war room at Apple HQ in Cupertino has planned for all scenarios. Other sources will compensate for the revenue lost from Google

The company most likely to capture this opportunity is OpenAI, which announced its search engine, SearchGPT just before the verdict dropped. Previously, OpenAI may have had difficulty gaining market share for SearchGPT, but this ruling could help it compete with Google.

Google’s second antitrust trial for dominating internet advertising which would have more ramifications on the Google ads ecosystem. If Google loses that trial, the DOJ could force it to sell YouTube or other properties, significantly altering the digital advertising landscape.

Michael Cohen, EVP, performance media services, Horizon Media

In the immediate, short, and probably mid-term, we do not anticipate this decision to directly affect either Google Search spend or overall search spend, as Search spend is typically driven overwhelmingly by direct media performance. As long as Google Search remains a worthwhile, competitively priced vehicle for meeting our clients’ business goals and cannot be easily substituted, we expect that our clients will want to press forward. 

As we get a better sense of what the remedies are in the follow-up trial, we will be better positioned to hypothesize on what the antitrust ruling will mean for media costs and overall search market share. One of the benefits of search investment is that it is relatively fluid and thus can easily move between platforms, should the need arise.

Michael Ouellette, SVP marketer, agency and tech strategy, Prohaska Consulting

From a buyer investment standpoint I don’t see much shift in decisions based on this ruling.  Clearly this move is supposed to help diversify consumer search activity into other search engines, like Microsoft. However, Google’s already overwhelming market share will likely not be impacted for some time. Advertising investment will follow where the target audience is, and until Google’s market share starts to diminish, the investment will continue to be made in that channel.

Depending on the ruling Sept. 9, advertisers may shift more budgets into search, likely Google. It’s really going to depend on how or if Google’s buyer offering is restricted coming out of that case.

Rachel Bucey Klein, VP, earned and owned media, Wpromote

Many people now begin their search journeys on social media. From Google’s introduction of AI Overviews to SearchGPT, GenAI is changing the search experience. But people will always seek out information; it’s our job to build strategies that meet them where they are. 

We’re not pulling investment in Google search by any means, but we have grown our focus on increasing visibility at emerging search starting points — namely TikTok, Reddit and ChatGPT. We’ll continue to follow where the data leads and test all options so our clients get the most out of their marketing dollars, whether that’s with Google or another search engine.

While the DOJ’s ad tech suit has the potential to more directly impact advertising costs, any remedies will take time to come to fruition as Google will undoubtedly appeal. In the meantime, we ensure our clients are prepared for any seismic shifts in the media landscape by diversifying their media mix, building agile, responsive plans and continuously testing ad tech to find the best fit.

We’re closely monitoring these cases, but our media approach fundamentals remain unchanged. Ultimately, more competition means more options for our clients.

Katie Driggs, VP, director of media and analytics, FerebeeLane

This decision likely won’t have an impact on our investment distribution until we see a shift in search volume across the other search engines. If search volume grows on Microsoft and others, budget allocations may shift to reflect that. In many cases we consider other factors beyond search volume to determine spend allocation. For example, if we see that certain organic search platforms are driving on-site conversions versus other search engines, we may shift budget in that direction — even without seeing a jump in search volume.

This article originally appeared on Campaign US.