U.S. seeks to break up Google in court — what’s known

Google is trying to avoid a forced sale of part of its advertising unit as a new clash with U.S. antitrust regulators unfolds in Alexandria, Virginia. The Department of Justice and a coalition of states insist on breaking up assets to restore competition in the online advertising market.

This was reported by Reuters.

What exactly the government demands

The U.S. Department of Justice, along with several states, is seeking the sale of Google’s AdX ad exchange. On this platform, online publishers pay the company about a 20% commission for selling ads in auctions that take place instantly as pages load. Authorities also propose making the mechanism for determining auction winners open-source.

The sale of AdX became necessary after U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema ruled that Google had illegally "tied" AdX to its publisher ad server — the platform websites use to store and manage ad space.

Google’s attorney, Karen Dunn, called the Justice Department’s proposals "radical and irresponsible," arguing they would harm competition by effectively removing Google from the market. According to her, the government is seeking unprecedented power and control over a major American tech platform.

The company is asking the court to take a more cautious approach, similar to a recent Washington ruling where most of the DOJ’s proposals in a separate online search monopoly case were rejected. However, a representative of the DOJ’s antitrust division countered that in that case, Chrome was merely a distribution channel, not part of the monopoly itself, making comparisons between the two cases invalid.

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