Google avoids ad exchange breakup order

• A U.S. judge rejected regulators’ request to force Google to sell its advertising exchange AdX.
• The ruling allows Google to keep the ad exchange while requiring behavioral remedies.
• The decision follows a broader U.S. antitrust effort targeting major technology companies.

Alphabet’s Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) avoided a forced breakup of its advertising technology business after a U.S. judge rejected the Department of Justice’s request to require the company to sell its advertising exchange AdX.

Judge Leonie Brinkema of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia declined to order the sale of AdX, where publishers use Google’s platform to sell digital advertisements through automated auctions.

“The court accepts most of the proposed behavioral remedies while declining to order the divestiture of AdX,” said U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema.

The DOJ and a coalition of states sued Google in 2023, arguing that the company maintained illegal monopolies in advertising technology markets, and Brinkema previously ruled that Google held unlawful monopolies in publisher ad servers and ad exchanges.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) operates Google and other technology businesses, including search, advertising, cloud computing, and consumer software products.

The ruling follows other U.S. antitrust cases involving major technology companies, including challenges against Meta Platforms, Amazon, and Apple, as regulators continue examining competition in large digital markets.