U.S. to Break Up Google’s Ad Tech Empire
The U.S. Department of Justice just dropped a bombshell: they want Google to break apart its ad tech business, starting with AdX & Google Ad Manager.
Filed in court Monday, the DOJ’s proposal aims to dismantle what it calls a “decade-long campaign of exclusionary conduct.” A judge already ruled Google’s ad dominance violates antitrust law. Now the DOJ wants action.
The Plan:
- AdX must go — fast. The DOJ says AdX has made it hard for publishers and advertisers to switch to rivals and wants it sold ASAP.
- Google would also be banned from running an ad exchange for 10 years.
- Google Ad Manager/DFP would be split off in phases.
- First: Google must build an API for third-party integration and offer a full data export tool.
- Then: Open-source the ad auction code — and permanently block Google from using it again across Chrome, Android, DFP, etc.
- Finally: Sell off the rest of DFP to a completely separate buyer.
The DOJ also wants Google barred from using first-party data from Search, YouTube, Gmail, Chrome, and Android to boost its ad advantage.
Google’s Pushback:
Naturally, Google isn’t going quietly. It says it acquired AdX and DFP legally, and that splitting them up isn’t just hard, it’s a five-year engineering nightmare. According to Google, rebuilding these tools outside its ecosystem would drain resources and hurt customers.
Instead, Google is offering limited reforms:
- Let rivals access AdX’s real-time bids.
- Drop policies that block sharing bid data.
- Kill unified pricing rules (UPR).
- Keep the retired First Look and Last Look tools in the grave.
But the DOJ isn’t backing off — especially with a separate antitrust case still in progress, where it’s asking the court to make Google sell off Chrome too.
Bottom Line:
Google’s ad tech dominance is under full-on siege. If the DOJ gets its way, it could be the beginning of the end for Google’s ad empire as we know it.
