Judge orders changes to Google's digital ads business but spares it from
a breakup
[September 03, 2026] By
MICHAEL LIEDTKE and BARBARA ORTUTAY
A federal judge on Wednesday ordered Google to retool the system
powering its monopoly in digital advertising, sparing the company from a
wrenching breakup sought by the U.S. government.
The initial two-page decision by U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema in
Virginia marks the second time in a year that Google has received a
reprieve from a Justice Department proposal to dismantle its internet
empire. Meanwhile, what courts have described as the company's
anti-competitive practices have enriched Google's corporate parent,
Alphabet Inc., which has a market value of $4.11 trillion.
The judge's full opinion, which includes the specific remedies, will
remain under seal for 14 days to allow the parties to review it and
propose any necessary redactions.
“We’re very pleased the Court rejected the DOJ’s proposal to break apart
tools that help small businesses reach new customers and grow,” said
Lee-Anne Mulholland, Google's vice president for regulatory affairs.
After a judge declared Google's ubiquitous search engine as an illegal
monopoly in 2024, the Justice Department pushed for a penalty that would
have required the company to sell its popular Chrome web browser. But it
was rebuffed last September by another federal judge overseeing that
case.
Now Brinkema has also rejected the government's argument that Google
should be forced to sell parts of the technology underlying a Byzantine
system that generates a significant portion of the company's nearly $400
billion in annual ad sales.
Critics of Big Tech condemned the ruling.
“It takes an Olympic level of mental gymnastics to find that Google is
operating an illegal monopoly and then decide to do nothing about it,"
said Sacha Haworth, executive director of The Tech Oversight Project.
“With Big Tech continuing to suffocate new and innovative businesses
from gaining traction, Judge Brinkema, like (U.S. District Judge Amit)
Mehta before her, is sending the wrong message at the wrong time.”
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 Brinkema is adopting an approach
that the Justice Department adamantly opposed last November when the
judge heard closing arguments during the trial’s remedy phase. The
ad tech case dates back to the government’s 2023 filing of an
antitrust lawsuit that resulted last year in an illegal monopoly
judgment.
Justice Department lawyers warned Brinkema in court documents that
if Google is allowed to hold on to all its ad technology, the
company will still be able to find ways to “manipulate computer
algorithms that are the engine of its monopolies in ways too
difficult to detect.”
In its counterarguments, Google contended would be unduly harsh to
break up a complex network that distributes ads that online
publishers depend upon to help finance digital services used by
millions of consumers.
The technology underlying advertising exchange targeted in the case
handles 55 million requests per second, according to estimates
provided by Google in court filings. “This is technology that
absolutely has to keep working for consumers,” Google had warned
leading up to Brinkema’s ruling.
In her decision, Brinkema said she agreed to most of the remedies
suggested by the two sides.
Even though the changes ostensibly will shake up the status quo in
ways that could decrease Google’s revenue or at least slow its
future growth, the ruling seems likely to be viewed by most
investors as the equivalent of speed bump for a company that has
recently been turbocharged by AI technology.
That has been the prevailing perspective about the punishment handed
down by U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta in the search monopoly case.
Since that decision came down in Washington D.C., Alphabet’s stock
price has surged 45% to create an additional $1.3 trillion in
shareholder wealth.
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