Google spared from ad-business breakup, but judge orders changes to how it operates
Google has dodged an effort to break up its ad business, but a judge said Wednesday that the company will need to adjust its business to benefit competitors.
In a recent ruling, federal judge Leonie M. Brinkema of the Eastern District of Virginia has decided that Google's advertising business will not be broken up, but will instead be required to change its practices to favor competitors. This decision comes after years of attempts by the Justice Department to break up Google's advertising business through two separate antitrust lawsuits. Both cases argued that Google's dominance in the digital ad economy represented an illegal monopoly.
The court's decision in 2024 determined that Google's search business, including its lucrative search-ad operation, was an illegal monopoly. However, in September 2025, Judge Brinkema rejected the government's requests for divestitures, such as separating Google's Chrome browser and Android operating system. Instead, Google will be required to modify its business practices to benefit competitors.
The judge's ruling does not specify the exact changes Google must implement, and the full written ruling will remain under seal for 14 days to allow for necessary redactions. Google's vice president for regulatory affairs, Lee-Anne Mulholland, expressed satisfaction with the court's decision, stating that the company is pleased that the DOJ's proposal to break apart its tools for small businesses is not being enforced.
The government's ad-tech case against Google centered on the company's tactics to ensure its search engine was the default on devices worldwide, which helped its ad business dominate. Google achieved this dominance through exclusive agreements with device manufacturers and revenue-sharing deals with mobile carriers.
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