US judge finds Google holds illegal online ad tech monopolies

Source: Yahoo! Finance/Reuters

Thu, April 17, 2025 at 10:43 AM EDT


(Reuters) -Alphabet's Google illegally dominated two markets for online advertising technology, a federal judge said on Thursday, dealing another blow to the tech titan in an antitrust case brought by the U.S.

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema in Alexandria, Virginia, ruled that Google unlawfully monopolized markets for publisher ad servers and the market for ad exchanges which sit between buyers and sellers. Antitrust enforcers failed to show the company had a monopoly in advertiser ad networks, she wrote.

The ruling could allow prosecutors to argue for a breakup of Google's advertising products. The U.S. Department of Justice has said that Google should have to sell off at least its Google Ad Manager, which includes the company's publisher ad server and its ad exchange.

Google will now face the possibility of two different U.S. courts ordering it to sell assets or change its business practices. A judge in Washington will hold a trial next week on the DOJ's request to make Google sell its Chrome browser and take other measures to end its dominance in online search. Google has previously explored selling off its ad exchange to appease European antitrust regulators, Reuters reported in September.

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