Google Avoids Breakup in Ad Tech Monopoly Case
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US District Court Judge Leonie Brinkema rejects Justice Department's request to force the sale of Google business units, opting for behavioral remedies instead.
US District Court Judge Leonie Brinkema has declined a request from the Justice Department to force Google to sell off portions of its ad tech business, according to reporting from The Verge.
While the judge previously ruled that Google illegally monopolized markets for ad exchanges and publisher ad servers—specifically by anticompetitively tying its AdX ad exchange and Doubleclick for Publishers (DFP) tool—she opted for milder behavioral remedies over a corporate breakup. Potential measures may include prohibiting self-preferencing in ad auctions or granting third-party tools access to the same real-time data as Google, though the final details remain confidential pending further review.
Google VP of regulatory affairs Lee-Anne Mulholland stated the company is pleased the court rejected the proposal to break apart tools used by small businesses. The judge did find, however, that the DOJ failed to prove Google illegally monopolized the market for advertiser-side tools.
This decision follows a similar pattern in a separate search monopoly case where Judge Amit Mehta also declined a breakup, instead requiring Google to alter its behavior and share data. The Verge notes that this concludes the district court phase of the third major federal tech monopoly case in recent years, following a lost FTC case against Meta and pending trials against Amazon and Apple.