Tech watchdogs cry foul as Googles adtech monopoly left intact by judge: Embarrassing capitulation

Tech watchdogs cried foul this week after a federal judge unsealed a ruling that left Google’s digital advertising monopoly largely untouched – with one group blasting the remedies as an “embarrassing capitulation” that won’t help news publishers and advertisers.US District Judge Leonie Brinkema’s 106-page decision ordered Google to share more data about its ad auctions with publishers and appoint an independent antitrust monitor to police its business practices, among other changes.The order was unsealed roughly two weeks after Brinkema said she would not order a forced breakup of Google’s ad empire.Google will be required to apply the court-ordered changes for just six years – far less than the 15-year term sought by the Justice Department.

CEO Sundar Pichai’s company also retains control of its “AdX” marketplace, where it extracted a 20% fee to conduct online ad sales in real time. “After finding Google guilty of illegal conduct, this decision is an embarrassing capitulation that essentially lets them determine their own punishment in exchange for a promise not to repeat the behavior,” said Barry Lynn, director of the Open Markets Institute.“Judge Brinkema’s decision fails the American people and American democracy.”Brinkema’s light-touch approach came as a surprise to many industry experts after she ruled in April 2025 that Google’s conduct “substantially harmed” publishers and constituted an illegal monopoly.

She also said the company had “destroyed” key evidence by deleting employee chat logs.In her order, Brinkema asserted that her remedies “will be sufficient to effectively pry open to competition the ad tech markets that were injured by Google’s ​unlawful conduct, and prevent Google from reverting to anticompetitive conduct in these markets.”Meanwhile, the judge said that the DOJ’s push for a forced divestiture was “neither realistic nor needed” to address Google’s illegal conduct.Brinkema’s ...