A federal judge has ordered Alphabet's Google to overhaul its online advertising technology practices and appoint an internal antitrust compliance monitor, while declining to force a breakup of its ad tech business. In a 106-page decision, U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema in Alexandria, Virginia, found that Google must relax rules governing its online ad auctions, rejecting the Department of Justice's push to force Google to sell its AdX exchange and ruling instead that opening AdX's real-time bidding data to competing publisher ad servers would restore "much-needed" competition. Google can no longer require websites using its ad server to also use AdX, and must end practices that publishers said locked them into its tools, with the changes to remain in place for six years, well short of the 15-year term the DOJ and several states had sought, and a compliance monitor overseeing enforcement. Google said it disagrees with the judge's liability ruling on its Ad Manager publishing tool and plans to appeal, maintaining that a full breakup would have made it harder for small businesses to reach customers. The Justice Department first sued Google over its ad tech dominance in 2023, and Brinkema found in April 2025 that the company had illegally monopolized parts of the online advertising technology market.
Alphabet Inc Class CJudge orders Google to overhaul ad auction rules, open AdX bidding data, and accept a six-year antitrust compliance monitor.
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