Brinkema ruling follows 2025 Google monopoly finding
A federal judge on Wednesday rejected the Justice Department’s request to break up Google’s ad-tech business, marking the second time the company has avoided divestiture after being found to have illegally maintained a monopoly. U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema adopted other proposals that would curb Google’s ability to control how publishers use its technology.
Brinkema issued the order following her 2025 ruling that Google had illegally monopolized the online-ad-auction technology that decides which advertisements appear on websites.
The Justice Department had argued that forcing Google to divest its ad exchange was the only way to curb Google’s dominance and open the market to new competition.