Google Escapes Forced Sale of AdX Exchange After Antitrust Ruling

A federal judge has ruled that Google will not be forced to divest its AdX ad exchange, citing antitrust law violations in a long-running case.

The decision, handed down by U.S. District Court Judge Leonie Brinkema, comes over a year after she found Google had harmed consumers and publishers by monopolizing key components of the market for serving ads on outside publishers' sites.

The antitrust battle dates back to January 2023, when the Department of Justice and a coalition of states claimed Google corrupted legitimate competition in the ad tech industry by monopolizing markets connected to open web display advertising.