Google avoided the breakup of its advertising technology business on Wednesday, September 2, 2026, when U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema rejected the Justice Department's push to force a sale of a key part of the operation.

In a ruling obtained and viewed by TheWrap, Judge Brinkema of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia instead ordered Google to change some of its business practices to address its illegal monopoly in parts of the ad-tech market. The specifics of the changes were not immediately made public.

The decision is a major win for Google. It preserves an advertising operation that sits at the center of the digital media economy, connecting publishers that sell advertising space with marketers trying to reach consumers online.

What did the Justice Department want?

The DOJ had sought a far more dramatic remedy after Brinkema ruled last year that Google illegally maintained monopolies over its publisher ad server and its ad exchange.

Government lawyers argued that changing Google's behavior would not be enough to restore competition. They asked the court to impose three principal remedies:

• Force Google to sell its AdX advertising exchange, which facilitates transactions between buyers and sellers of digital advertising
• Require Google to make public some of the computer code behind its publisher tools
• Allow Brinkema to retain the option of ordering additional divestitures if competition did not improve

Google countered that breaking up the business would be complicated and could hurt smaller publishers that rely on the company's technology and scale to sell advertising.

What does the ruling change?

Brinkema stopped short of a breakup. According to an entry on the court docket, she granted "most" of the changes to Google's business practices that the Justice Department and Google jointly proposed.

That docket language — granting "most" of the proposed conduct changes — signals the operative scope of the order: behavioral relief rather than structural divestiture.

For antitrust practitioners, the ruling is significant on two fronts. First, it shows a federal court willing to accept that conduct remedies can address a confirmed monopoly in a two-sided market, even after liability findings on multiple products. Second, the exact content of the ordered changes remained undisclosed as of the ruling's release, leaving compliance teams and counsel for affected publishers and advertisers waiting for the public version before assessing exposure.

The ruling arrives as publishers continue to grapple with a digital advertising market heavily influenced by Google. TheWrap previously reported that media companies became heavily dependent on Google's one-stop network of advertising tools, with the company operating on multiple sides of the digital ad market.

How did the parties respond?

"The Antitrust Division is pleased that the court ordered substantial relief in the Google Ad Tech case," a DOJ spokesperson told TheWrap. "We are one step closer to restoring competition and bringing relief for the American people in online advertising markets. The Department is evaluating appropriate next steps."

"We're very pleased the Court rejected the DOJ's proposal to break apart tools that help small businesses reach new customers and grow," Google's Lee-Anne Mulholland said in a statement to Reuters.

The DOJ's reference to "appropriate next steps" leaves open the possibility of an appeal or further enforcement action, though the department did not specify its plans.