Google seeks to avoid ad tech breakup as antitrust trial begins

23/9/2025 12:16

Alphabet's Google is seeking to avoid a forced sale of part of its online advertising business in its latest face-off with U.S. antitrust enforcers that began on Monday in Alexandria, Virginia.



The trial is the government's next best shot at curbing what a judge has ruled is Google's monopoly power, after losing a separate bid to make Google sell its Chrome browser earlier this month. Online publishers and rival ad tech developers, some of whom have separately sued Google for damages, will be watching the case closely.



The U.S. Department of Justice and a coalition of states are trying to make Google sell its ad exchange, AdX, where online publishers pay Google a 20% fee to sell ads in auctions that happen instantly when users load websites. The government is also seeking to require Google to make the mechanism that decides the winner of those auctions open source.