US Judge Leonie Brinkema of the Eastern District of Virginia declined on 2025-07-23 to order Alphabet's Google to sell AdX, its ad exchange where publishers pay Google a 20 percent fee, rejecting the US Department of Justice's bid to break up Google's advertising technology business. ^[1] U.S. District Court Judge Leonie Brinkema refused to force Google to sell a division of its digital advertising business on Wednesday. ^[2] Brinkema's rejection is the third consecutive US court defeat for antitrust enforcers seeking to break up Big Tech, following a judge's rejection of the FTC's bid to force Meta to sell Instagram and WhatsApp and another judge's rejection of the DOJ's bid to force Google to sell its Chrome browser. ^[3] In a prior 2024 ruling, Judge Brinkema found that Google had willfully monopolized both the publisher ad server and ad exchange markets and unlawfully tied the two products together. ^[4] Judge Brinkema accepted behavioral remedies instead of a breakup, but her opinion was filed under seal for 14 days, so the details of the required changes are unknown; she ordered the two sides to submit a joint proposed final judgment within 30 days. ^[5] Judge Leonie Brinkema accepted behavioral remedies proposed by Google, including providing real-time bid access to competitors, instead of forcing a sale. ^[6] The Department of Justice argued that Google could not be trusted to run the online advertising exchange after the judge ruled that Google had illegally quashed competition. ^[7] This ruling marks the third time in recent years that U.S. antitrust enforcers have tried to force a Big Tech breakup and lost. ^[8] Judge Leonie Brinkema said in 2025 she will release a detailed ruling in 14 days to allow time to redact confidential information. ^[9] Judge Leonie Brinkema opted for a set of rules governing how Google must operate in the ad market instead of a forced sale. ^[10] The cases are part of a broader effort by the Department of Justice to curtail the competitive dominance of big tech companies, including Apple, Amazon and Meta. ^[11] In 2024, a court determined that Google's search business, including its search-ad operation, was an illegal monopoly. ^[12]