Google Spares Adtech Business from Forced Breakup

Google's adtech business has been ruled to be operating illegal monopolies in the publisher ad server and ad exchange markets. However, despite a federal court ruling last year that found Google maintained monopoly power, the company will not be required to divest key parts of its advertising business.

In a court order issued by Judge Leonie Brinkema, Google was instead forced to adopt some behavioral changes, although the details of these changes have yet to be specified. The Department of Justice had proposed structural remedies that would have required Google to divest its ad exchange and open-source some auction logic in its ad server.

The government first sued Google over its adtech business in 2023, accusing the company of instituting practices that iced out competition and unfairly entrenched its dominance. Last year's court ruling found that Google maintained monopoly power and unlawfully tied its publisher ad server, DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP), to its ad exchange, AdX.