Google’s Adtech Empire Faces Crisis as DOJ Pushes for Structural Remedies

Big Tech’s grip on digital ads is about to face its toughest challenge yet.

The U.S. government’s case against Google’s digital advertising business reaches a pivotal turning point.

A federal trial set for September 22 will determine whether the tech giant must divest key elements of its ad tech stack.

It's a step the Department of Justice (DOJ) claims is essential to bring fairness back to the digital advertising industry.

Each generation has called for the @TheJusticeDept to challenge a behemoth that crushed competition. In decades past, it was Standard Oil and AT&T.

Today’s behemoth is Google. pic.twitter.com/RnmmorPuiB

— Antitrust Division (@JusticeATR) April 22, 2025

The DOJ is asking the court to force Google to spin off two pivotal components of its business:

• Ad exchange, where digital ads are bought and sold in real-time auctions
• Publisher ad server, which websites use to manage and serve these ads

Together, these tools have given Google outsized control over both the buying and selling sides of the digital ad economy.

This follows Judge Leonie Brinkema’s ruling in April, which concluded that Google deliberately held onto its market dominance.

It did so by using contracts and system integration that shut out competitors and restricted publisher choice.

While the court found no illegal monopoly in advertiser-facing tools, it ruled that Google’s behavior in publisher-facing tech violated antitrust law.

High Stakes All Around

Government attorney Julia Tarver Wood stressed in court that Google has a pattern of skirting legal boundaries and that breaking up the business is the only safeguard against repeat violations.

“Leaving Google with 90 percent of publishers dependent on them is, frankly, too dangerous,” she said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Assistant Attorney General Abigail Slater of the DOJ's Antitrust Division emphasized how "the online search market has been frozen for decades."

"We are here to ask the court to fix the harm from Google's unlawful conduct. Nothing less than the future of the internet is at stake," Slates said in an interview posted on X.

ICYMI: The Future of the Internet is at Stake pic.twitter.com/Rr2JLFPHmf

— Abigail Slater (@AAGSlater) April 22, 2025

Google, however, maintains that such measures are extreme and unsupported by the court’s findings.

It argues that divestiture would create significant disruption for advertisers and publishers, and that it claims it still competes heavily with Meta, Amazon, and TikTok for ad budgets.

“The DoJ’s additional proposals to force a divestiture of our ad tech tools go well beyond the court’s findings, have no basis in law, and would harm publishers and advertisers,” said Lee-Anne Mulholland, Google's VP of Regulatory Affairs

She warned that forced separation could destabilize the entire adtech ecosystem and expose users to privacy and security risks.

"DOJ’s proposal would force Google to share your most sensitive and private search queries with companies you may never have heard of, jeopardizing your privacy and security.

Your private information would be exposed, without your permission, to companies that lack Google’s world-class security protections, where it could be exploited by bad actors," Mulholland wrote in a blog post.

This case is just one part of a broader legal campaign targeting Google’s dominance across multiple verticals.

CEO Sundar Pichai has strongly opposed the DOJ's proposed remedies, warning they could undermine the company’s ability to fund innovation in search.

These overlapping cases signal the government’s more aggressive approach to regulating tech monopolies.

Depending on the outcomes, Google could be required to dismantle some of the most strategic pieces of its business infrastructure.

And these include those that helped it become a dominant force in both digital advertising and search.

Alphabet CEO testifies -> US v. Google: Sundar Pichai says the DOJ's proposal to share Google search data with rivals amounts to a “de facto” spinoff of Google's search engine and its IP

"If Google were required to share both its search data and the information on how it ranks… pic.twitter.com/T8OmMB4b55

— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) April 30, 2025

Indeed, Google has a point. 

A forced divestiture of Google’s adtech tools could splinter the unified system many digital marketing agencies rely on for cross-channel targeting, real-time optimization, and performance tracking.

This will force a reevaluation of media buying strategies.

Marketers may also need to manage more third-party platforms, increasing operational complexity and costs for campaign execution and data integration.

On the other hand, ad prices could go down, giving small businesses more opportunities to dabble in digital marketing.

Competitors like The Trade Desk, Magnite, and Amazon Ads could also gain substantial ground if publishers and advertisers look other for scalable, privacy-compliant alternatives.

The outcome of the trial could set a precedent for antitrust enforcement in the tech industry, influencing how dominant platforms are regulated and how competition is maintained in digital markets.