Google Escapes US Antitrust Bid to Force Sale of AdX Exchange

A US federal judge has rejected a bid by the Department of Justice to force Google to sell its AdX advertising exchange, dealing another blow to antitrust efforts aimed at breaking up big tech.

The ruling is the second major victory for Alphabet's Google in as many months, following a similar decision in April 2025 that found the company held illegal monopolies on servers that host publisher ads and ad exchanges.

Judge Leonie Brinkema in Virginia declined to make Google sell AdX, where publishers pay a 20% fee to sell ads in auctions that happen instantly when users load websites. She accepted most of the parties' proposed behavioral remedies instead.