Judge Rebuffs DOJ Request, Orders Behavioral Remedies for Google's Ad-Tech Business
A federal judge has rejected the Department of Justice's request to force Google to sell its AdX advertising exchange, opting instead for a package of behavioral remedies aimed at opening parts of Google's ad-tech business to greater competition.
The September 2 remedies opinion in United States, et al. v. Google LLC, No. 1:23-cv-00108 (E.D. Va.), turned down the government's demand for divestiture and refused to order Google to open-source its Ad Manager's final auction logic.
Judge Leonie Brinkema concluded that modified behavioral remedies would be sufficient to address the anticompetitive conduct found in Google's advertising technology business, stating that 'structural remedies are neither realistic nor needed' and that the behavioral remedies would effectively pry open affected ad-tech markets to competition.