Google Keeps Control of AdX After Judge Rejects Divestiture Request

A federal judge has rejected the Department of Justice's request to force Google to sell its AdX advertising exchange, opting for behavioral remedies instead. The ruling, issued on September 2 but kept under seal until yesterday, declined to require Google to divest AdX or open-source Google Ad Manager's final auction logic.

According to Judge Leonie Brinkema, modified behavioral remedies would be sufficient to address the anticompetitive conduct found in Google's advertising technology business. The court-ordered regime will focus on interoperability, data sharing, anti-discrimination, monitoring, and compliance.

The Department of Justice and a coalition of states had urged the court to require divestiture, arguing that behavioral commitments alone would not adequately address the competitive harm identified in the case. Google argued that divestiture would be technically complex and unnecessary to restore competition.