I love the cover art on the paper. Sums up the issue perfectly. For those who will not read the PDF: Google completed a series of transactions that allowed i

I love the cover art on the paper. Sums up the issue perfectly. For those who will not read the PDF: Google completed a series of transactions that allowed it to participate in every level of the ad stack. (#1) Google leveraged its power in search advertising, in which it holds monopoly power to coerce advertisers to use Google products to access the display market as well. (#2) Google advantaged itself through arbitrage and cross-subsidization opportunities made possible by the fact that it, and it alone, operates at all levels of the value chain. (#3) Google withheld interoperability in order to disadvantage, foreclose, and punish its ad stack rivals. (#6) Google designed auction processes that cement its own market power and raise rivals costs. (#10) Google kept key market information hidden to shield itself from scrutiny from publishers, advertisers, and potential new entrants, suppressing otherwise natural competitive forces. (#14) Google leveraged its control over the ad tech stack and Google Analytics to weaken rival sources of display supply. (#18) 1. Acquiring Independent Companies To Cement Its Role Across the Ad Stack 2. Leveraging Market Power in General Search into Display 3. Designing Auctions That Facilitate Arbitrage and Rent Seeking 4. Cross-Subsidizing Competitive Functions of the Ad Tech Stack with Monopolized Functions In Order to Rise Rivals' Costs and Foreclose 5. Deceptive Gathering and Integration of Data 6. Strategic Disabling of Interoperability To Disadvantage Rivals 7. Withholding Interoperability to Steer Demand and Supply Through Its Own Exchange 8. Providing Exclusive Programmatic Access to YouTube Though Google's DSP 9. Retiring the Third-Party Cookie 10. Disadvantaging Rival Exchanges by Google s Publisher Ad Server 11. Undermining Header Bidding Through the Development of So-Called Open Bidding 12. Undermining Header Bidding Through Exclusionary Features of AMP 13. Designing Analytics to Steer Market Participants to Google Products and Prevent Entry 14. Resisting Transparency at All Levels of Ad Tech Stack 15. Obscuring Fees So That Competitors Cannot Enter and Compete Effectively 16. Using Privacy Laws as an Excuse to Hide Performance Data 17. Thwarting Publisher Efforts to Understand Source of Payments 18. Designing Attribution to Favor Search and Disadvantage Publishers 19. Raising Rivals Costs and Foreclosure of Existing and Potential Horizontal Competitors 20. Capturing Publisher Data in Order to Monetize Their Audiences They are not looking at Facebook, Amazon, or other walled gardens as viable alternatives for those who want to place ads on the open web. There is only one "choice". "All roads lead through Google".