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Alphabet’s Google has been handed a second significant legal setback in less than a year, after a “illegal monopoly” ruling from a federal judge on Thursday.
CNBC reported that US District Judge Leonie Brinkema in Alexandria, Virginia, ruled that Google unlawfully monopolised markets for publisher ad servers and the market for ad exchanges which sit between buyers and sellers.
It comes after Judge Amit Mehta had ruled in August 2024 about Google’s search domination, writing at the time “the court reaches the following conclusion: Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly.”
Search monopoly
Judge Mehta found that Google had violated antitrust law by spending billions of dollars to create an illegal monopoly and become the world’s default search engine.
Alphabet pays Apple, Samsung, Mozilla and others billions of dollars to make Google the default search engine on their devices.
In November 2024 the DoJ demanded that Google must sell its Chrome browser; share data and search results with rivals; and take a range of other measures to end its monopoly on online search, including addressing its ownership of the Android operating system.
In March 2025 the DoJ dropped a proposal to force Google to sell its investments in AI companies such as Anthropic.
However next week a trial in Washington will decide on the DoJ’s request to make Google sell its Chrome browser and take other measures to end its dominance in online search.
Ad tech monopoly
But before this in April 2025, US District Judge Leonie Brinkema has ruled that Google unlawfully monopolised markets for publisher ad servers and the market for ad exchanges which sit between buyers and sellers.
But she added that US antitrust enforcers had failed to show the company had a monopoly in advertiser ad networks.
“For over a decade, Google has tied its publisher ad server and ad exchange together through contractual policies and technological integration, which enabled the company to establish and protect its monopoly power in these two markets.” Brinkema wrote. “Google further entrenched its monopoly power by imposing anticompetitive policies on its customers and eliminating desirable product features.”
The ruling could allow prosecutors to argue for a breakup of Google’s advertising products, CNBC noted.
The DoJ said that Google should have to sell off at least its Google Ad Manager, which includes the company’s publisher ad server and its ad exchange, CNBC reported.
Judge Brinkema oversaw a three-week trial last year on claims brought by the DoJ and a coalition of states.
Google appeal
But Google reportedly said it will appeal the ruling.
“We disagree with the Court’s decision regarding our publisher tools,” Lee-Anne Mulholland, Google’s vice president of regulatory affairs was quoted by the Associated Press as saying. “Publishers have many options and they choose Google because our ad tech tools are simple, affordable and effective.”
As it did in the search monopoly case, Google and Alphabet vehemently denied the Justice Department’s allegations.
Google had argued during the three week trial in 2024 that the DoJ case focused on the past, when the company was still working on making its tools able to connect to competitors’ products.
US prosecutors also ignored competition from technology companies including Amazon.com and Comcast as digital ad spending shifted to apps and streaming video, Google’s lawyer had argued.
The next step in the latest case is a penalty phase that will likely begin late this year or early next year.
DoJ lawsuit
The US DoJ was joined by a bipartisan coalition of 17 additional States, when it had filed its ad-tech lawsuit against Google back in January 2023.
In June 2023 the largest newspaper publisher in the United States, Gannett, also filed a lawsuit against Google because of Google’s alleged “monopolisation of advertising technology markets and deceptive commercial practices.”
Gannett has more than 200 daily newspapers in America, including USA Today.
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