A federal judge ruled on Wednesday, September 2, 2026, that Google will not be forced to sell its advertising business, but ordered the company to change how it operates to benefit competitors.
Federal judge Leonie M. Brinkema of the Eastern District of Virginia handed down the decision, which addressed only the remedy in the ad-tech antitrust case. Rather than requiring a divestiture, Brinkema ruled that Google must adjust its business practices to favor competitors — though, according to The New York Times, her ruling “did not provide specifics” on how Google should do that. The full written ruling will remain under seal for 14 days to allow for necessary redactions.
The ruling is the latest development in a years-long effort by the Justice Department to rein in Google’s dominance across digital advertising. The DOJ filed two separate antitrust lawsuits against Google — one in 2020 focused on search dominance, and a second in 2023 targeting its ad-technology business specifically. Both cases argued that Google held an illegal monopoly over the digital ad economy. Courts sided with the government in both instances, with the ad-tech case producing a finding of illegal conduct back in April 2025.
The outcome mirrors a similar pattern from the search case. In September 2025, Judge Amit Mehta rejected DOJ requests to force Google to divest Chrome and Android, instead ordering the company to end exclusive default-placement deals and share search data with competitors — remedies Google is currently appealing.
The government argued that Google locked in its dominance through exclusive agreements with device manufacturers that made it the default search engine across much of the mobile market, as well as revenue-sharing deals with carriers that further cemented its position.
Google framed Wednesday’s ruling as a victory. Lee-Anne Mulholland, the company’s vice president for regulatory affairs, said: “We’re very pleased the Court rejected the DOJ’s proposal to break apart tools that help small businesses reach new customers and grow.”
Source: TechCrunch