Judge Spares Alphabet from Breakup in Google Ad Monopoly Case
A US federal judge has ordered Google to retool its digital ads business but declined to break it up, sparing Alphabet Inc. from a significant penalty.
The decision by Judge Leonie Brinkema in Virginia comes after a year-long antitrust lawsuit brought by the Justice Department, which argued that Google's ad tech monopoly stymied competition and enriched its parent company.
Google's vice president for regulatory affairs, Lee-Anne Mulholland, welcomed the ruling, saying it 'rejected the DOJ's proposal to break apart tools that help small businesses reach new customers and grow'.
Critics of Big Tech condemned the decision, calling it a 'wrong message at the wrong time' that lets Google continue to suffocate new businesses. The ad tech system handles 55 million requests per second, according to estimates provided by Google in court filings.