Google Escapes US Bid to Force Sale of AdX Advertising Business
Alphabet's Google has won a crucial battle against a US bid to force it to sell its advertising technology business. On Wednesday, Judge Leonie Brinkema in Virginia rejected the US Department of Justice's (DOJ) request to make Google sell AdX, an online ad exchange where publishers pay Google a 20% fee to sell ads.
The DOJ and a coalition of states had sued Google in 2023 over its dominance in advertising technology markets. In April 2025, Brinkema ruled that Google held illegal monopolies on servers that host publisher ads and ad exchanges, which sit between buyers and sellers. 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.
Google argued that a forced sale would be technically difficult and result in a long transition that would hurt customers. The company also pointed out that its own offer to sell AdX had ended an EU antitrust investigation in 2024.
The ruling is the second major victory for Google against US antitrust enforcers, following similar rejections of bids to break up Big Tech companies Meta Platforms and Amazon. It has fueled questions about whether courts are equipped to check the industry's power over the US economy.