Washington D.C., April 18, 2025 – A U.S. District Court in Virginia has ruled that Google violated antitrust laws by maintaining monopolies in the online advertising markets for publisher ad servers and ad exchanges. The court found that Google’s restrictive bundling practices harmed competitors and consumers, marking its second significant antitrust loss after a previous search monopoly ruling.
The Department of Justice has called for the divestiture of Google Ad Manager as a remedy, though experts believe this would affect Google’s revenue by less than 10%. Google plans to appeal the ruling, which is part of a growing bipartisan movement for stricter antitrust enforcement in the digital advertising space.
