The Justice Division has spent years making an attempt to interrupt up Google’s gargantuan promoting enterprise throughout two separate antitrust lawsuits: one filed in 2020 centered on Google’s dominance in search, and a second filed in 2023 that particularly focused Google’s ad-technology enterprise. Each circumstances argued that the search large’s grip on the digital advert economic system represents an unlawful monopoly.
Courts have largely sided with the federal government in each circumstances. In 2024, a courtroom decided that Google’s search enterprise, together with its exceedingly profitable search-ad operation, was an unlawful monopoly, claiming that the tech large had “exercised its monopoly energy” to dominate the search business and search advertisements. Final April, a second court case — this one centered particularly on Google’s ad-tech enterprise — additionally got here to the identical conclusion.
Following the 2024 ruling, Justice Division officers steered a wide range of methods Google’s search enterprise might be damaged up, together with divesting its Chrome browser and Android working system. However in September 2025, the choose overseeing that case, Amit Mehta, rejected these divestiture requests, ruling that Google may maintain each Chrome and Android. He did order the corporate to finish unique default-placement offers and share sure search information with rivals (cures that Google is presently interesting).
That very same sample held this week. In a ruling handed down on Wednesday, federal choose Leonie M. Brinkema of the Jap District of Virginia, who oversaw the ad-tech case, stated that Google would be capable of maintain its promoting enterprise. As a substitute of promoting it, the search large will as an alternative be required to regulate its enterprise practices to favor rivals, Brinkema stated. The New York Occasions notes that the choose’s ruling “didn’t present specifics” as to how Google ought to go about doing that.
Brinkema’s full written ruling will stay beneath seal for 14 days to permit these concerned to difficulty essential redactions. Her discovering that Google had acted illegally in sustaining its ad-tech enterprise dates again to April of final 12 months; this week’s choice addressed solely the treatment.
Unsurprisingly, Google framed the result as a win. Lee-Anne Mulholland, Google’s vice chairman for regulatory affairs, advised TechCrunch: “We’re very happy the Courtroom rejected the DOJ’s proposal to interrupt aside instruments that assist small companies attain new clients and develop.”
The internet advertising ecosystem is notoriously opaque and byzantine and, for most individuals unfamiliar with its complexities, tough to know. A lot of the federal government’s ad-tech case towards Google revolved across the firm’s ways to make sure that its search engine was the default engine in units internationally, which in flip helped its advert enterprise dominate as properly.
To do that, Google used exclusive agreements with gadget producers, which made it the default search engine throughout large swaths of the cell phone market, the federal government has argued. Google additionally entered into income sharing agreements with cellular carriers — offers the place carriers earned a lower of advert income in alternate for preserving Google because the default — that additional cemented its place because the de facto search engine throughout cellphone markets.
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