Virginia Court Rejects Breakup of Google Advertising Business

A federal court in Virginia has rejected the Department of Justice's request to break up Google's advertising business as a remedy for illegal monopolization.

The court agreed to impose 'most' of the behavioral limits proposed by the government, but did not grant the DOJ's request for a divestiture.

Google argued that a divestiture would be extreme and questioned the Antitrust Division's legal authority to seek one since Judge Brinkema had not found that Google's purchase of AdX was illegal.

The decision comes as the court continues to weigh in on the DOJ's case against Google, which alleges that the company has engaged in monopolistic practices in the online advertising market.