Alphabet’s Google escaped a breakup of its advertising technology business on Wednesday, when a judge in Virginia rejected US antitrust enforcers’ bid to force a sale of Google’s online advertising exchange.
While the ad exchange is a small part of Google’s business, the ruling is the second powerful symbolic victory against the US Department of Justice in its efforts to force Google to sell assets to address illegal monopolies.
US judge Leonie Brinkema in Alexandria, Virginia, declined to make Google sell AdX, where publishers pay Google a 20% fee to sell ads in auctions that happen instantly when users load websites. She accepted most of the parties’ proposed behavioral remedies.
問題となったのは、ウェブサイトの読み込み時に瞬時に行われるオークションで、パブリッシャーが広告を販売するためにGoogleへ20%の手数料を支払うオンライン広告取引所 AdX である。
The justice department and a broad coalition of states sued Google in 2023 over its dominance in markets for advertising technology used by online publishers and websites.
司法省の分割要求とバージニア州連邦地裁の判断
In April 2025, Brinkema ruled that Google holds illegal monopolies on servers that host publisher ads and ad exchanges which sit between buyers and sellers. Google unlawfully locked publishers on its ad server into using its AdX, the judge found.
ブリンケマ判事は当時、同社の反競争的行為について、Googleのパブリッシャー顧客、競争プロセス、そして最終的にはオープンウェブ上の情報消費者に対して実質的な損害を与えたと指摘した。
当時、裁判所は同社の反競争的行為について次のように認定している。
Leonie Brinkema, U.S. Judge
At a trial last year on remedies in the case, the justice department argued that Google cannot be trusted to run AdX, given its past behavior.
Google argued that a forced sale would be technically difficult and result in a long and painful transition that would hurt customers. The company also sought to show the justice department’s demand was different from Google’s own previous offer to sell AdX to end an EU antitrust investigation, which Reuters reported in 2024.
昨年の救済審理において、司法省側は過去の行為を理由にGoogleがAdXを運営し続ける信頼性はないと主張した。これに対し、Google側は強制売却が技術的に困難であり、顧客に損害を与える長期かつ痛みを伴う移行をもたらすと反論した。また、欧州連合（EU）の独占禁止法調査を終結させるために自ら提案したAdX売却の過去の提案とは内容が異なる点を強調した。
Ad Manager revenue and Wedbush analysis of court documents
Ad Manager represented 4.1% of Google’s overall revenue and 1.5% of operating profit in 2020, according to Wedbush research and analysis of court documents. More recent figures were redacted from court documents.
The ruling is the third time in a row that a judge has rejected a bid by US antitrust enforcers to break up big tech in a crackdown that started during Donald Trump’s first term. It is likely to fuel questions about whether courts are up to the task of checking the industry’s unprecedented power over the US economy.
相次ぐビッグテック分割訴訟の壁と今後の展望
対象企業当局の主要な要求裁判所の判断および現状MetaInstagramおよびWhatsAppの売却昨年にワシントンの連邦地裁がFTCの試みを却下 Google（検索部門）Chromeブラウザの売却司法省の請求を同じくワシントンの連邦地裁が却下AmazonおよびAppleスマートフォンやオンライン小売市場における是正2027年以降に裁判が開始される見通し
A federal judge in Washington last year rejected the Federal Trade Commission’s attempt to make Meta Platforms sell off Instagram and WhatsApp, saying the agency failed to prove that Meta holds a monopoly in a social media landscape that has shifted drastically since the case was
Wedbushのリサーチおよび裁判所の文書分析によれば、アドマネージャーは2020年時点でGoogle全体の売上高の4.1%、営業利益の1.