Google has also escaped the threat of a forced divestiture of its online advertising business, after doing so with the Chrome web browser.
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on the 2nd (local time) that the U.S. federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, dismissed the Ministry of Justice's request to force the sale of Google's online ad auction platform AdX. AdX is an exchange that connects advertisers and publishers who sell ad inventory in real time so they can buy and sell ads. In this process, Google takes a 20% fee on the transaction amount.
Judge Leonie Brinkema acknowledged that Google monopolized the market through AdX, but found that partitioning corporations would be excessively harsh and impractical. The judge cited the possibility that ordering a partitioning could lead to lawsuits and appeals that take years to conclude the process, and the uncertainty over who would acquire AdX.
Instead of ordering a platform sale, the court adopted a behavioral remedy to correct Google's abuse of market dominance, such as granting competitors real-time bidding access. With this, Google, which effectively prevailed in last year's lawsuit over a forced sale of Chrome, will also be able to keep its online ad platform.
A Google spokesperson said, "We are pleased that the court rejected a request to dismantle tools that help small businesses attract customers and grow."
The U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division said on X (formerly Twitter), a social networking service (SNS), "We welcome the court's order of significant remedies," and noted, "We are one step closer to our goal of restoring competition in the online ad market and delivering benefits to the American people." It added, "We are reviewing appropriate next steps."
By contrast, Sasha Haworth, executive director of the tech watchdog Tech Oversight Project, urged congressional legislation, saying, "This ruling shows that the courts cannot save us from the vast power of Big Tech."