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5d ago

DOJ Proposes Breakup of Google’s Ad-Tech and Search Businesses

The Justice Department has outlined structural remedies, including divestitures of AdX, DFP, and Chrome, to address Google’s monopolistic practices, with remedy hearings set for later this year.

FILE - A man walks past Google's offices in London's Kings Cross area, on Aug. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Brian Melley, File)
FILE - 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 Google logo is seen on the Google house at CES 2024, an annual consumer electronics trade show, in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. January 10, 2024. REUTERS/Steve Marcus/File Photo
Alphabet Inc. and Google CEO Sundar Pichai speaks during the inauguration of a Google Artificial Intelligence (AI) hub in Paris on February 15, 2024.

Overview

  • The DOJ has formally proposed that Google divest its AdX advertising marketplace and DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP) ad server to restore competition in the digital ad-tech sector.
  • In a separate antitrust case, the DOJ seeks to force Google to sell its Chrome browser and implement data-sharing and transparency measures to curb its search monopoly.
  • Google has countered with behavioral remedies, including real-time data sharing and changes to ad pricing rules, while opposing divestitures as unfeasible and harmful to publishers and advertisers.
  • Remedy hearings for the ad-tech case are scheduled for September 2025, while the search remedies are expected to conclude by the end of summer 2025.
  • If the DOJ’s proposals succeed, this would mark the most significant corporate breakup in the U.S. since AT&T in the 1980s, potentially reshaping the tech industry.