Is Google headed for a breakup? Second federal judge calls it a monopoly
By 
Aaron Nicodemus2025-04-18T14:01:00
A federal judge has ruled that Google “willfully engaged in a series of anticompetitive acts” in the advertising technology industry, the latest antitrust setback in what could become a string of losses for tech companies.
Judge Leonie Brinkema of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia said in a ruling issued Thursday that Google illegally built its dominance on the technology that places advertisements on pages across the web. The case began when the Department of Justice and the attorneys general from several states sued Google in 2023.
The loss follows another ruling last August by a different federal court that concluded Google had violated antitrust laws by building a monopoly on online searches. Other U.S. Department of Justice lawsuits are pending to determine whether to break up some of Google’s most popular products, including a potential spinoff of its Chrome browser and Android phone software.
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