US expands attempt to blow up Google with proposed teardown of its ad
technology
[May 07, 2025] By
MICHAEL LIEDTKE
The U.S. Justice Department is doubling down on its attempt to break up
Google by asking a federal judge to force the company to part with some
of the technology powering the company's digital ad network. The
proposed dismantling coincides with an ongoing federal effort to
separate Google's Chrome browser from its dominant search engine.
The government's latest proposal was filed late Monday in a Virginia
federal court two-and-half weeks after a federal judge ruled that its
lucrative digital ad network has been improperly abusing its market
power to stifle competition to the detriment of online publishers.
In a 17-page filing, Justice Department lawyers argued that U.S.
District Judge Leonie Brinkema should punish Google by ordering the
company to offload its AdX business and DFP ad platform, tools that
bring together advertisers, who want to market their products, and
publishers, who want to sell commercial space on their sites, to bring
in revenue.
The government also is seeking other restrictions, including a 10-year
ban on Google from operating a digital ad exchange, to undercut the
power of a “recidivist monopolist.”
Not surprisingly, it's an idea that Google vehemently plans to oppose
when the penalty phase of the antitrust case —known as remedy hearings —
begins in late September. Google already has vowed to appeal Brinkema's
ruling that the technology powering the ad network has been breaking the
law, but can't do that until the judge rules on its punishment in a
decision expected late this year or early next year.
The Justice Department's proposal “would cause economic chaos and
technological dysfunction resulting in harm to millions of advertisers
and publishers, and in so doing, degrade the experience of internet
users,” Google said in a court filing late Monday.
In its counterproposal, Google outlined a plan that it believes will
bring more transparency to its ad network and eventually foster more
competition. Google proposed the appointment of a trustee to oversee its
behavior for three years.
The attempt to tear down Google's ad network comes on top of the Justice
Department's ongoing effort to have the company part with its popular
Chrome browser and impose other restrictions to curtail the power of its
ubiquitous search engine, which another federal judge branded an illegal
monopoly in a ruling last August.
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A sign is displayed on a Google building at their campus in Mountain
View, Calif., on Sept. 24, 2019. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)
 The remedy hearings in the search
case are scheduled to conclude later this month, with a ruling from
U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta expected by Labor Day.
If the Justice Department is able to persuade the two different
judges to order its proposed dismantling of Google, it would be the
biggest breakup of a U.S. company since AT&T was forced to spin off
its phone service into seven separate regional companies more than
40 years ago.
Google's Play Store for apps running on its Android software that
powers most of the world's smartphones also was declared an illegal
monopoly by a federal jury in 2023 and is battling a judge's order
that would require it to overhaul a commission system that generates
billions of dollars in annual revenue.
But hobbling its search engine and digital ad network would be far
bigger blows because they are the key cogs in a business that
generated $265 billion in revenue last year.
Google is confronting the breakup threats at the same time the
advent of artificial intelligence is changing the way consumers are
using technology and seeking information online — a shift that could
also siphon traffic and money away from a powerhouse that began in a
Silicon Valley garage in 1998.
Despite the adversity, Google is still delivering robust financial
growth to its corporate parent Alphabet Inc., which is currently
valued at $2 trillion.
Alphabet's share dipped by less than 1% Tuesday to close at $163.20.
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