Google Escapes Another Breakup Attempt Unscathed

US District Court Judge Denies Justice Department’s Request to Break Up Google’s Ad Tech Business

In a recent development, US District Court Judge Leonie Brinkema has rejected the Justice Department’s plea to force Google to divest parts of its ad tech business. Instead, the judge has opted for less severe measures to address the monopolistic practices that Google has allegedly engaged in for several years.

According to Brinkema, she will be adopting most of the proposed behavioral changes put forward by the involved parties, albeit with some modifications. The specifics of these changes will be disclosed after further discussions between the parties to address any proposed revisions and to redact confidential information from the judge’s opinion. Potential proposals include restricting Google from using self-preferencing ad auction tactics and ensuring that third-party ad tech tools have access to real-time information on par with Google.

Once the final opinion is released, Google will have the option to challenge Brinkema’s ruling on being an illegal ad tech monopoly. This mirrors a previous case where Judge Amit Mehta refrained from ordering a breakup of Google and instead mandated data sharing with competitors and behavioral changes.

The Department of Justice successfully argued in the ad tech case that Google had unlawfully monopolized the publisher ad servers and ad exchanges markets. The court concurred that Google’s tying of Doubleclick for Publishers (DFP) and AdX ad exchange had stifled competition. However, the DOJ’s claim of Google monopolizing the advertiser-side tools market was not substantiated. Ryan Pauley, president of The Verge’s parent company PMX Global, was involved in the case.

In response to the ruling, Google’s VP of regulatory affairs Lee-Anne Mulholland expressed satisfaction that the court rejected the proposal to dismantle tools aiding small businesses. Meanwhile, the DOJ Antitrust Division stated that it was evaluating its next steps following the court’s order for substantial relief.

This decision marks the conclusion of the district court phase of the third major tech monopoly case pursued by the federal government. Besides the Google antitrust cases, the FTC’s case against Meta and upcoming trials involving Amazon and Apple are set to shape the landscape of tech competition enforcement in the years ahead.