U.S. Will Not Break Up Google’s Ad Business (Updated)

U.S. District Court Judge Leonie M. Brinkema said today that she will not require Google to divest its illegal advertising business. She will instead require the monopolist to make unspecified changes to address its abuses of power.

“We’re very pleased the court rejected the DOJ’s proposal to break apart tools that help small businesses reach new customers and grow,” a Google statement notes.

“The department will continue to fight for fair competition,” a DOJ statement explains. “The timing of the court’s order reflects the tradeoffs between immediate relief and remedies obtained through years of litigation.”

The ruling is currently under seal so that Google and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) can check it for any proprietary information that needs to be redacted. The decision will be released later this month after that work is complete.

“It is hereby ORDERED that Plaintiffs’ proposals for structural remedies in the form of the divestiture
of AdX, the open-sourcing of DFP’s final auction logic, and the contingent divestiture of DFP
Remainder, be and are REJECTED,” Judge Brinkema writes. “It is further ORDERED that most of the parties’ proposed behavioral remedies, as modified by this Court, be and are ACCEPTED.”

In April 2025, Google was found to have an illegal monopoly in online advertising, just as it had been found one year earlier to have an illegal monopoly in online search. In the advertising case, Judge Brinkema found that Google “willfully engaged in a series of anticompetitive acts to acquire and maintain monopoly power in the publisher ad server and ad exchange markets for open-web display advertising,” and that in doing so, it violated Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act.

In one of the more cowardly judicial acts I’ve seen outside of the U.S. Supreme Court, the judge in Google’s search monopoly case declined to require the company to divest itself of the Chrome web browser or Android, the two key ways it was found to distribute its monopoly service. The U.S. Department of Justice is appealing that ruling.

And that’s happening in the advertising case as well, though it’s not clear as I write this what remedies Judge Brinkema will impose. The judge conducted two weeks of remedy hearing last September and October and recommended that Google and the DOJ pursue a settlement. That didn’t happen, so she is issuing her remedy ruling today.