A judge has ruled that Google can escape a break-up of its adtech business, but has mandated changes to stabilise competition.
A US judge has ruled that Google may hold on to its adtech business in a win for the tech giant against antitrust enforcers.
This is the latest attempt by regulators to force the company to sell the Google Ad Exchange (AdX). It follows a number of attempts by the US Justice department to break up Google’s huge adtech business, which it ruled in 2024 to be an illegal monopoly.
Judge Leonie Brinkema in Virginia declined to enact a break up of AdX, and accepted most of the tech company’s proposed behavioural remedies which look to give competitor firms a bigger slice of the ad-tech ecosystem.
The details of the ‘remedies’ have not yet been released, and will remain sealed for 14 days as the affected parties review the documents, with the opportunity to propose redactions.
The Justice Department argued that a forced sell-off of AdX was the only way to mitigate Google’s market dominance and introduce competition into the market.
This does not overturn previous ruling which found that Google violated antitrust laws in sections of its open-web adtech market. Courts have previously determined that Google unlawfully obtained and maintained a monopolistic power in the publisher ad server and ad exchange markets, and that it unlawfully tied AdX to its publisher ad server.
Brinkema previously stated that Google’s anticompetitive conduct “substantially harmed Google’s publisher customers, the competitive process, and, ultimately, consumers of information on the open web.”
The tech giant argued that a forced sale would both be technically difficult and would be a long and painful transition, ultimately hurting customers. Although most recent figures were excluded from court documents, WedBush analysis determined Ad Manager to represent 4.1% of Google’s overall revenue and 1.5% of operating profit, as of 2020.
Google executive Lee-Anne Mulholland commented: “We’re very pleased the Court rejected the DOJ’s proposal to break apart tools that help small businesses reach new customers and grow.”
Affiliate Leaders did reach out to Google for comment, but it did not immediately offer a response.
