For years, the government tried to prove Google should be broken up. There's finally a verdict.

Throughout the Biden administration, Google was locked in two antitrust cases — one over its search engine dominance and another for its digital advertising business. For remedies, Google was at risk of divesting some of its most prized products, including Chrome and Google Ads. However, a new decision will let Google keep its toys in the end.

To understand the scope of this story, we have to go back to October 2020 when the first complaint was filed by the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. The document accused Google of a Sherman Act violation — the bill that bans monopolistic practices — and ultimately aimed to bring action against the tech giant for “unlawfully maintaining monopolies in the markets for general search services, search advertising, and general search text advertising in the United States.”

Google risked divesting several of its major products and services.

The case would ultimately go to trial in late 2023 with Obama-appointed District Judge Amit Mehta presiding, but not before a second antitrust case tried to bring Google to its knees once more.

In early 2023, another complaint was filed, this time aimed directly at Google’s online ad business. It claimed that the company:

• Monopolized the ad server market, which is the software that website publishers use to manage the ads on their websites.
• Monopolized or attempted to monopolize the ad exchange market, which is a digital auction where publishers sell ad space to advertisers.
• Monopolized the advertiser ad network market, which is a system that gathers up available ad space from multiple publishers to sell to advertisers.
• Was complicit in unlawful tying, where a company uses its dominance with one product to coerce users to adopt another product under the guise that their pairing is necessary to make the system of platform work as intended.
• Brought monetary damages upon the United States.

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The collective charges from both cases resulted in multi-year trials, each with major repercussions mounting for the tech giant. At one point, Google risked divesting several of its major products and services, including the Google Chrome browser, the Android mobile operating system, and Google Ads. And somehow, bit by bit, Google clawed its way out of total calamity.

In September 2025, District Judge Mehta ruled that Google would not have to sell Chrome or Android. However, the company was still found guilty in that it “harmed Google’s publishing customers, the competitive process, and, ultimately, consumers of information on the open web,” according to a press release. To atone, Google was forced to:

• End bundled contracts, where Google forced OEMs and partners to include Google apps on their devices in exchange for Google Play Store support.
• Disclose web search index data with rivals for a small fee, excluding trade secrets and intellectual property.
• Allow rivals to rent Google search results, maps, and other services on their websites with tapered plans that diminished over the next five years.
• Provide a five-year license to competitors to use Google’s search ad network.
• Submit to a five-member watchdog group to ensure all remedies were met for six years.

Things were looking up for Google, but it wasn’t out of the woods yet. The second case was still underway, and after Clinton-nominated District Judge Leonie Brinkema found the company guilty again, a new batch of devastating remedies were on the table. This time, Google risked having to:

• Sell its Google Ads business, including Google AdX (aka: Google Ad Exchange) and Google DFP (aka: DoubleClick for Publishers), formerly known as Google Ads Manager.
• Discontinue tying practices for a minimum of 10 years.
• Put 50% of Google Ads (AdX and DFP) profits into a locked escrow account from April 17, 2025, until the Google Ads sale is complete.
• Refrain from using data collected through Google services — like YouTube, Gmail, Search, Chrome, or Android — to exclude competitors for a minimum of 10 years.
• Submit to two independent watchdog groups to ensure the sale is carried out properly and that all rules are met.

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Fast-forward to September 2026, and now the final major repercussion is no longer in play. District Judge Brinkema ruled that Google will not have to sell its ad business after all, allowing the company to keep all of its main products and services intact.

That said, consequences still loom for the Big Tech giant. Like in the case before it, Google will have to make behavioral changes to its business model. The exact remedies are still sealed in District Judge Brinkema’s official opinion, which is expected to be released by the end of September.

Regardless of the information contained inside, one thing is clear: Google earned the ire of the courts, got itself slapped down with two back-to-back antitrust lawsuits, and even as it stumbled on the cusp of the biggest company breakup since AT&T, the tech giant still came out with all of its parts attached. Only time will tell if Google can keep its nose out of trouble.

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