Google won the part of the antitrust fight that actually mattered to its balance sheet. A federal judge in Virginia ruled that the company illegally monopolized two critical corners of the online advertising market, then declined to break anything up.
Judge Leonie M. Brinkema issued her liability ruling on April 17, 2025, finding that Google violated the Sherman Act by unlawfully tying its publisher ad server and its ad exchange together in ways that squeezed out competitors. The Department of Justice had wanted structural relief, specifically forcing Google to sell its Ad Exchange, known as AdX. The judge pointed toward narrower behavioral remedies instead.
What Google actually did wrong
The case, filed by the DOJ and a coalition of states in January 2023, centered on two products that most people have never heard of but that quietly govern a large portion of what advertising looks like on the open web.
Google’s DoubleClick for Publishers, now rebranded as Google Ad Manager, is the dominant tool that website publishers use to manage and sell their ad inventory. AdX is the auction marketplace where advertisers bid for that inventory. Judge Brinkema found that Google maintained monopolies in both markets by linking the two products in ways that made it nearly impossible for rivals to compete effectively in either.
