Sept. 2 (UPI) — A federal judge said Wednesday that Google does not need to break up its advertising technology business, rejecting a Justice Department request to force the company to do so.
The same U.S. district judge, Leonie Brinkema, found in April 2025 that Google illegally obtained and maintained a monopoly over two markets in advertising technology, an industry that helps connect publishers selling ad space online to prospective advertisers. The Justice Department sued the company in 2023.
However, on Wednesday, Brinkema said the company does not have to break up and sell off parts of its AdX exchange business. The ruling said that “most of the parties’ proposed behavioral remedies, as modified by this Court,” are accepted. It did not give details of those remedies.
Brinkema also did not require Google to open-source the technology behind its DoubleClick for Publishers platform or require the company sell that business.
“We’re very pleased the Court rejected the DOJ’s proposal to break apart tools that help small businesses reach new customers and grow,” Lee-Anne Mulholland, Google’s vice president of regulatory affairs, said in a statement, The Hill reported.
A Justice Department representative said in a statement that the department is “pleased that the court ordered substantial relief,” The Hill said.
In the ruling in April 2025, Brinkema said Google harmed its publisher customers, the competitive process and consumers of online information.
“Plaintiffs have proven that Google has willfully engaged in a series of anticompetitive acts to acquire and maintain monopoly power in the publisher ad server and ad exchange markets for open-web display advertising,” that ruling said.
It further said the company, for more than a decade, “hastied its publisher ad server and ad exchange together through contractual policies and technological integration, which enabled the company to establish and protect its monopoly power in these two markets.”
The ruling also said Google “further entrenched its monopoly power by imposing anticompetitive policies on its customers and eliminating desirable product features.”
Another judge ruled in August 2024 that Google had anillegal monopoly over online search, but the company was also not forced tobreak up its search business.