Google's ad tech monopoly will remain, but must relax rules and appoint antitrust monitor
Google's ad business gets off lightly
by https://www.techradar.com/author/craig-hale · TechRadarNews By Craig Hale Published 17 September 2026
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- Google told to make significant interoperability changes to its ads business
- It'll be monitored for six years, but the DOJ wanted 15 years of monitoring
- Google says it intends to appeal the decision, nonetheless
Despite the Department of Justice's best efforts, US District Judge Leonie Brinkema has ultimately concluded that Google won't be mandated to break up its ad-tech business, however the tech giant will still need to make some major changes to its business model to tame monopoly fears.
While the DOJ had previously accused Google of not being trustworthy to operate AdX fairly, with publishers having to pay Google a 20% fee to sell advertising through AdX, Brinkema decided that changes rather than a breakup would be more appropriate.
Crucially, the company will need to disconnect its publisher ad server from AdX, and websites using Google's publisher ad server must not be required to use AdX as well.
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Google gets off relatively lightly with ad monopoly allegations
By disconnecting the two, the judge hopes that greater interoperability will be realized, thus adding some "much-needed" competition back into the market. In other words, Google must not favor its own tools over competition.
But the company will still be under close monitoring as it sets out to appoint an internal antitrust compliance monitor. Additionally, the changes won't necessarily be long-term, because the restrictions and monitoring are only set to last six years, during which time it's hoped that the competition landscape will open up and further action will not be needed. Still, the DOJ wanted 15 years of restrictions, not six.
Despite avoiding the toughest action, Google still says it disagrees with the ruling and that it intends to appeal (via Reuters). Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward Jr described the result as a "significant victory."
Advertising accounted for $294.7 billion in company revenue last fiscal year of its $402.8 total, or around 73%. That's down from 76% the year before and 77% one year before that.
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