A federal judge on Wednesday ordered Google to reform its digital advertising system, rejecting the U.S. government's push to break up the company's dominant ad tech business. U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema issued the initial decision, which marks the second time in less than a year that a Justice Department proposal to dismantle parts of Google's internet empire has been thwarted.
The judge's full opinion, which will detail the specific remedies, is expected to remain under seal for 14 days to allow parties to review and propose any redactions. Google's parent company, Alphabet Inc., has a market value of approximately $4.11 trillion.
"We’re very pleased the Court rejected the DOJ’s proposal to break apart tools that help small businesses reach new customers and grow," said Lee-Anne Mulholland, Google's vice president for regulatory affairs.
This ruling follows a separate antitrust case where a judge in 2024 declared Google's search engine an illegal monopoly. In that instance, the Justice Department had sought to force the sale of Google's Chrome web browser, but was denied by a different federal judge in September.
Brinkema also rejected the government's argument that Google should be compelled to sell parts of the technology that powers a significant portion of the company's nearly $400 billion in annual ad sales. The ad tech system targeted in the lawsuit handles an estimated 55 million requests per second, according to Google's court filings.
Critics of the decision expressed disappointment. "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. "With Big Tech continuing to suffocate new and innovative businesses from gaining traction, Judge Brinkema, like (U.S. District Judge Amit) Mehta before her, is sending the wrong message at the wrong time."
The Justice Department had warned that allowing Google to retain its ad technology would enable the company to continue manipulating algorithms in ways that are difficult to detect. Google, in its defense, argued that breaking up its ad technology network would be unduly harsh, impacting online publishers who rely on the system to finance digital services used by millions of consumers.
Brinkema indicated that she agreed with most of the remedies proposed by both Google and the Justice Department. While the mandated changes could potentially decrease Google's revenue or slow its growth, the ruling is largely anticipated by investors to be a minor setback for the company, which has recently seen significant gains driven by AI technology. This perspective mirrors the market reaction to the earlier search monopoly ruling, after which Alphabet's stock price surged approximately 45%, adding $1.3 trillion in shareholder value.