Google Spared Divestiture, but AdX and DFP Face Major Overhaul

A US federal judge has ruled that Google will not be required to sell its AdX exchange or DFP publisher ad server, but instead imposed behavioral remedies on the company.

The decision was made by Judge Leonie Brinkema of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, who found Google had illegally monopolized two markets in April 2025.

The remedies aim to dismantle specific mechanisms that contributed to the monopoly, but leave in place the ownership structure that made them possible.

Google will now have to make real-time bid data from AdX available to rival ad servers, deprecate unified pricing rules, and prohibit first look and last look on open-web display inventory.