Google dodges breakup of digital ad monopoly as judges ruling sparks outrage:Olympic level of mental gymnastics
A federal judge is coming under harsh criticism for sparing Google from a forced breakup of its digital advertising empire – despite earlier ruling that the Big Tech giant was operating two separate illegal monopolies in the online ad sector.US District Judge Leonie Brinkema on Wednesday shut down the Justice Department’s proposal to make the company sell off its “AdX” marketplace, where it extracted a 20% fee to conduct online ad sales in real time.That’s despite the fact she ruled in April 2025 that Google’s conduct “substantially harmed” publishers, and said the company had “destroyed” key evidence.“It takes an Olympic level of mental gymnastics to find that Google is operating an illegal monopoly and then decide to do nothing about it,” said Sacha Haworth, executive director of the Tech Oversight Project.Brinkema ordered Google, led by CEO Sundar Pichai, to adopt “most” of the “proposed behavioral remedies” from the DOJ and the coalition of US states that joined the antitrust lawsuit, though she did not state which proposals should be enacted.
Her full opinion on the case will be released later this month, after both sides have a chance to review it and suggest redactions concerning confidential information.The specific remedies aren’t expected to come out until then.The ruling marked the second time in exactly a year that Google has dodged a breakup of its online empire despite a federal judge’s ruling that it was illegally dominating a market.In a separate case that came to a head last September, US District Judge Amit Mehta decided against the DOJ’s request to force Google to sell off its Chrome web browser, despite earlier determining that the company was a “monopolist” with a chokehold over the online search market.“With Big Tech continuing to suffocate new and innovative businesses from gaining traction, Judge Brinkema, like Judge Mehta before her, is sending the wrong message at the wrong time,” Haworth said...