The US Justice Department has outlined its plan to break up Google’s advertising technology empire, marking the second request within a year to force the sale of parts of its business. The move comes as a result of a court ruling that found Google had a monopoly over some aspects of online advertising.
Judge Leonie M. Brinkema, who presided over last month’s hearing, will now determine the remedies needed to resolve her concerns. The government plans to ask the court to force Google to sell its ad exchange and break up its publisher ad tools by making its auction system open to the public.
Google’s lawyers argue that a breakup would not align with earlier legal precedent and would imperil privacy and security protections. They propose an alternative solution, where the court requires the company to change or abandon certain practices and opens up its ad auction bidding system in ways that benefit publishers.
The Justice Department’s request is the latest blow to Google, which faces another hearing on how to remedy its monopoly over search in a federal court in Washington. The two requests, if granted, would represent the biggest reshaping of a powerful company by the federal government since the 1980s.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/02/technology/google-advertising-technology-hearing.html