Google Escapes Forced Sale of AdX Exchange in Antitrust Battle

Google's advertising technology business has avoided a breakup after a Virginia judge rejected the US Department of Justice's bid to force a sale of its AdX exchange. The decision marks another antitrust win for Google, following a separate ruling that allowed the company to keep its Chrome browser. According to Reuters, Judge Leonie Brinkema declined to make Google sell AdX, where publishers pay a 20% fee to sell ads in auctions.

The DOJ and a broad coalition of states sued Google in 2023 over its dominance in ad-tech markets used by online publishers and websites. In April 2025, Brinkema ruled that Google holds illegal monopolies on servers that host publisher ads and ad exchanges. The tech giant's anticompetitive conduct 'substantially harmed Google's publisher customers, the competitive process, and, ultimately, consumers of information on the open web,' Brinkema said at the time.

Google added that a forced sale would be technically difficult and would result in a long, painful transition that would hurt customers. The company also sought to show that the DOJ's demand differed from Google's prior offer to sell AdX to the EU to end an antitrust investigation. Wednesday's decision is a win for Google, which avoided a breakup in the Justice Department's first antitrust case over its monopoly in the online search market.