Google's Ad-Tech Monopoly Meets Its Reckoning as Judge Weighs Remedies

Google's Ad-Tech Monopoly Meets Its Reckoning as Judge Weighs Remedies

A federal judge in Virginia is now deciding what Google must give up after ruling that the company illegally monopolized the technology that publishers and advertisers use to buy and sell ads online — a case that could reshape the economics of the open web.

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema of the Eastern District of Virginia found in April 2025 that Google violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act through its control of the ad-tech stack, the suite of tools that connects publishers selling ad space with advertisers bidding on it. The ruling came in a suit brought by the Justice Department's Antitrust Division alongside a coalition of state attorneys general. The case now sits in its remedies phase, where the government has asked the court to force structural changes, including divestiture of key ad-tech products. Google has said it will appeal.

The decision landed as a companion to the government's separate search-monopoly win against Google in the District of Columbia, where Judge Amit Mehta found in August 2024 that the company illegally maintained its search dominance. That case's remedy proceedings have drawn attention to how courts apply antitrust law to digital platforms whose services are free to consumers but costly to the businesses that depend on them.

For publishers, the stakes are concrete: ad-tech fees and auction mechanics determine how much of every ad dollar actually reaches newsrooms and independent sites. A structural remedy could open the market to competitors; a narrow one could leave the architecture largely intact.

Watch the court's remedy order and Google's appeal. Either could take years to resolve, and the outcome will set the template for how aggressively Washington polices platform power beyond search.

Primary sources: DOJ announcement on the ad-tech liability ruling; DOJ case page, U.S. v. Google LLC (E.D. Va.)