Google Ad Exchange Ruling: No Divestment Required

A federal court has ruled that Google will not be required to divest its ad exchange, AdX, in an antitrust case. The US District Court Judge Leonie Brinkema's opinion, announced yesterday, rejects a Department of Justice proposal to break up the tech giant's publisher ad server and ad exchange.

The DOJ had proposed that Google make some portions of its auction logic open-source as part of the remedies, but this was not included in the ruling. Instead, Google will be required to take on other proposed remedies, which are likely to be contained in Brinkema's opinion when it is unsealed in two weeks.

Nikhil Lai, principal analyst at Forrester, told Marketing Brew that structural remedies like breaking up a company or forcing a divestment are often too operationally complex and may not serve consumer welfare. Google celebrated the ruling, saying that it rejected the DOJ's proposal to break apart tools that help small businesses reach new customers.

The Department of Justice's Antitrust Division said that it is pleased that the court ordered substantial relief in the Google ad-tech case, but still has work to do to restore competition and bring relief for American people in online advertising markets. This ruling comes after a recent example of the federal government seeking to regulate Big Tech ad businesses, as seen in the FTC's lawsuit against Amazon.