Open Markets Institute Condemns Google Adtech Decision
After finding Google guilty of illegal monopolization of America’s online advertising business in April 2025, Judge Brinkema today rejected the only logical action to address the threat.
Open Markets Institute Executive Director Barry Lynn released the following statement condemning today’s decision in U.S. v Google, in which U.S. District Court Judge Leonie Brinkema declined to order the breakup of Google’s AdX ad exchange.
Statement from Open Markets Institute Executive Director Barry Lynn:
“There are many threats to American democracy today. Sadly, Judge Leonie Brinkema just added another, offering more proof the US judiciary is abdicating its congressionally mandated duty to apply the text and spirit of the nation’s antitrust laws.
“Even after finding Google guilty of illegal monopolization of America’s online advertising business in April 2025, Brinkema today rejected the only logical action to address the threat, which is to break up the corporation along easily identifiable lines. This follows a similar failure of Judge Amit Mehta to terminate Google’s illegal monopoly over search, after he also found the corporation guilty in a second, separate case.
“The full details of Brinkema’s decision won’t be published for another two weeks. But we know the immediate result. Google will remain largely free to pose an increasingly absolute threat to the core foundations of democracy – freedom of speech, freedom of thought and spirit, and freedom of the press. These results represent not merely a failure of imagination by Brinkema and Mehta. They mark a failure to faithfully apply the laws enacted by Congress, uphold the Constitution, and protect the liberties of the American people. History will recognize these decisions as simple acts of cowardice.
“But this is not the end of the story, by any means. When these cases were first filed, the American people had little understanding of the nature of the threat posed by Google and other tech overlords. This in turn meant Congress faced no real pressure to act, and that the courts were the only open path for reform.
“Today by contrast, the American people fully comprehend just how dangerous a threat that dominant tech and AI corporations pose to the future of our democracy, the wellbeing of our children, and our own most basic freedoms. That’s why state attorneys general have taken the lead in bringing vital cases to protect news and entertainment from concentrated power, and to protect children from dangerous manipulation. And why state legislatures are strengthening state laws.
“As for federal enforcement and federal courts, the American people themselves will now serve in judgment of Google’s many dangerous monopolies and behaviors and will act to ensure that our law enforcers and judiciary are truly fit to solve this extreme threat once and for all.”
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The Center for Media and Digital Governance at Open Markets has covered U.S. v Google extensively. You can find our coverage here.