Judge rejects DOJ bid to break up Google’s ad tech business

US District Court Judge Leonie Brinkema rejected the Justice Department’s request to make Google sell parts of its ad tech business, choosing narrower remedies in the case over markets the court found Google had illegally monopolized.

Brinkema said she would adopt most of the behavioral changes proposed by the parties, with some modifications. The remedies will not become public until the parties review the opinion for confidential information and discuss further revisions. Possible measures include restricting Google from using self-preferencing ad auction tactics and giving third-party ad tech tools access to the same real-time information as Google.

The case found that Google illegally monopolized markets for publisher ad servers and ad exchanges. Brinkema also agreed that Google tied its publisher ad server, Doubleclick for Publishers (DFP), to its AdX ad exchange in an anticompetitive way that made it nearly impossible for customers to leave. However, the DOJ did not prove that Google illegally monopolized a market for advertiser-side tools.

Google can decide whether to appeal the underlying monopoly ruling after the final opinion is released. The DOJ did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The decision concludes the district court phase of the third major federal technology monopoly case in recent years.