The U.S. Department of Justice has recommended that Alphabet’s Google separate its AdX advertising marketplace and ad server DFP, according to a court filing made public on Monday. This development follows a federal judge’s determination that Google maintained an illegal monopoly in two segments of the online ad-tech industry.
The judge has scheduled a trial for September, after receiving input from both Google and the DOJ regarding potential solutions to address the company’s stronghold over advertising tools utilized by online publishers.
The Justice Department contends that the suggested remedies, which include divesting segments of Google’s business, are essential to dismantle its monopolistic practices and revive competition in the ad-exchange and publisher ad-server sectors.
In response, Google has expressed support for alternative remedies, such as allowing competitors to access real-time bids. However, the company argues that the DOJ lacks the legal grounds to compel it to sell portions of its operations.
Lee-Anne Mulholland, Google’s Vice President of Regulatory Affairs, stated to Reuters, “The DOJ’s additional proposals to force a divestiture of our ad tech tools go well beyond the Court’s findings, have no basis in law, and would harm publishers and advertisers.”
AdX, short for Ad Exchange, serves as a marketplace where publishers can sell their unsold advertising space to advertisers in real-time. Publisher ad servers are vital platforms that enable websites to manage and store their digital advertising content.
This technology, combined with ad exchanges, provides news publishers and online content providers a means to generate revenue through advertising sales.
In an effort to resolve antitrust concerns from the European Union last year, Google proposed to sell AdX, but European publishers found the offer inadequate.
© Thomson Reuters 2025
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