Google Escapes AdX Divestiture Order in Antitrust Case

A federal judge has declined to order Google to divest its ad exchange AdX in the ongoing antitrust case, United States v. Google. Judge Leonie Brinkema's 106-page remedies opinion was unsealed on September 16 and found that structural relief was 'neither realistic nor needed.'

The court adopted detailed behavioral remedies aimed at the conduct it found unlawful, including breaking the tie between AdX and DFP (DoubleClick for Publishers), eliminating tools used to enforce the tie, and allowing Prebid, an open-source header bidding platform, to solicit real-time AdX bids.

The government's proposal for divestiture was rejected because it did not meet the 'significant causal connection' test set by the D.C. Circuit in Microsoft. The court noted that lawful factors contributed substantially to Google's position and that divestiture would be unprecedented where the violation is a tie among integrated technology products.

The decision follows Judge Amit Mehta's ruling in the 2020 search case, which also rejected the government's proposal for a Chrome divestiture. Both judges emphasized that artificial intelligence is reshaping the markets before them and that courts presume compliance with their orders.