Judge Rejects DOJ Request to Force Google to Sell AdX

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema on Wednesday rejected the Justice Department’s attempt to force Google to sell AdX, the company’s ad exchange, and instead ordered changes to how Google integrates its ad tools. The ruling keeps AdX inside Google’s ad stack and prompted a modest rise in Alphabet shares.

The case began in 2023 when the Justice Department and several states accused Google of using its ad technology to dominate the market publishers use to sell online advertising. The government sought a structural remedy that would require divesting AdX, where publishers and advertisers meet and where Google collects fees on transactions.

In an earlier ruling in April 2025, the judge found that Google had tied products in a way that harmed publishers and the competitive process, writing that the conduct “substantially harmed Google’s publisher customers, the competitive process, and, ultimately, consumers of information on the open web.”

Brinkema concluded the harms identified by regulators could be addressed through operational changes rather than a breakup. The court ordered Google to give rivals greater access to bidding data and to change how its ad products are integrated, aiming to reduce advantages that come from combining the exchange with other ad services.

Google argued in court that forcing a sale of AdX would create technical problems and disrupt publishers and advertisers that rely on its integrated systems. The judge accepted those practical concerns and declined the structural remedy, instead imposing behavioral and operational requirements.

Investors reacted by sending Alphabet shares modestly higher after the ruling. Ad Manager and related ad-technology tools accounted for about 4.1% of Google’s revenue and roughly 1.5% of its operating profit in 2020, while Alphabet’s market value remains in the trillions.

The ruling follows other recent decisions in which U.S. courts rejected requests to break up major technology assets; courts recently allowed Google to retain Chrome and allowed Meta to keep Instagram and WhatsApp in separate antitrust disputes. Regulatory scrutiny of Google continues in Europe, and investors are watching Alphabet’s large investments in artificial intelligence.