// THE VERGE — HARDWARE & GADGET
Google dodges another breakup attempt
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Google stymied competition for ad tech services for years, the judge previously ruled.
Google stymied competition for ad tech services for years, the judge previously ruled.
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US District Court Judge Leonie Brinkema declined the Justice Department’s request to make Google sell off parts of its ad tech business, accepting milder remedies to restore competition to markets it illegally monopolized for years.
Brinkema said she would adopt most of the behavioral changes proposed by the parties, with some modifications. But those won’t become public until the parties meet to work out any additional proposed revisions and to review the judge’s opinion for confidential information that must be redacted. They could include proposals like restricting Google from using self-preferencing ad auction tactics or letting third-party ad tech tools access the same real-time information as Google.
Once the final opinion comes out, Google can decide to appeal Brinkema’s underlying decision ruling it an illegal ad tech monopoly, as it recently did for a separate judgement that it had monopolized the online search market. In that case, Judge Amit Mehta also declined to go as far as a breakup, opting instead for Google to share data with competitors and alter its behavior.