Google Keeps AdX Amid Behavioral Remedies

A federal judge has rejected the Justice Department's bid to force Google to sell its AdX ad exchange, accepting behavioral remedies instead. The order signed by Judge Leonie Brinkema settles the biggest question in the government's advertising-technology case against Google.

The Justice Department had asked her to make Google divest AdX, the ad exchange at the center of its display-advertising business. She rejected this request, along with two other demands: forcing Google to open-source the final auction logic inside DFP, its publisher ad server, and ordering the remaining DFP assets sold if the first divestiture did not restore competition.

Judge Brinkema accepted most of the government's list of behavioral remedies, which are rules about how Google must operate rather than what it must sell. The opinion explaining these choices is sealed for 14 days to allow parties to flag confidential material for redaction.