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Judge rejects DOJ bid to force Google to sell AdX ad exchange
The court declined an asset sale request, accepting most behavioral remedies in the antitrust case targeting Google’s online ad auctions and related ad server conduct.
A Virginia judge rejected a US Department of Justice request to force Google, part of Alphabet, to sell its AdX online advertising exchange, a decision that keeps Google from being broken up in the remedies phase of the antitrust case.
Judge Leonie Brinkema said she accepted most of the parties’ proposed behavioral remedies, and declined to order a sale of AdX. The ruling is described as a second symbolic victory for Google in the DOJ’s push to address alleged illegal monopolies.
The lawsuit, filed in 2023, accuses Google of dominance in advertising technology used by online publishers and websites. In earlier findings, Brinkema ruled that Google held illegal monopolies involving servers that host publisher ads and ad exchanges, and that Google unlawfully locked publishers into using its AdX.
At the remedies trial, the DOJ argued Google cannot be trusted to run AdX based on its past conduct, while Google argued a forced sale would be technically difficult, create a long transition, and harm customers. The ad exchange accounted for about 4.1% of Google’s overall revenue and 1.5% of operating profit in 2020, according to Wedbush analysis of court documents, and more recent figures were redacted.