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Judge Leonie Brinkema rejects US antitrust enforcers' attempt to force Google to sell its online advertising exchange.

Judge Leonie Brinkema rejected a request from US antitrust enforcers to force Google to sell its online advertising exchange, AdX. While AdX is a small portion of the company's business, the ruling represents a victory for the firm against the Department of Justice's efforts to maintain a monopoly.

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In 2023, the Department of Justice and a coalition of states sued Google over its dominance in the advertising technology market. In April 2025, Judge Leonie Brinkema ruled that Google holds illegal monopolies on servers that host publisher ads and ad exchanges. She found that Google unlawfully locked publishers on its ad server into using AdX. The Department of Justice argued that Google could not be trusted to run AdX independently. Google argued that a forced sale would be technically difficult and challenging for customers. The judge accepted most of the parties' proposed behavioral remedies instead of a forced sale. This ruling is the third consecutive time a judge has rejected a bid by US antitrust enforcers to break up big tech.

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