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] 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. ^[2] 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. ^[3] 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. ^[4] In April 2025, Judge Leonie Brinkema ruled that Google holds illegal monopolies on servers that host publisher ads and ad exchanges which sit between buyers and sellers. ^[5] Judge Leonie Brinkema accepted most of the parties' proposed behavioral remedies regarding Google's antitrust violations. ^[6] The U.S. Department of Justice and a broad coalition of states sued Google in 2023 over its dominance in markets for advertising technology used by online publishers and websites. ^[7] The 2025 ruling is the third time US antitrust enforcers have failed to force a Big Tech breakup, following the 2024 rejection of the FTC's attempt to make Meta Platforms sell Instagram and WhatsApp, and another ruling that rejected the DOJ's bid to force Google to sell its Chrome browser. ^[8] The US Department of Justice said in 2025 in a social media post on X that it is 'pleased that the court ordered substantial relief' and is evaluating appropriate next steps. ^[9]