By Sunita D
Google is at the centre of a courtroom drama that could change the landscape of digital advertising and set a precedent for other internet titans in a historic week for the sector. The business is currently fighting in a Virginia federal court over the future of its vast digital advertising empire, only months after a historic decision against its search monopoly.
What’s at stake? The future of news media revenue, the structure of the online ad economy, and the delicate balance between privacy and competition.
Google and the US Department of Justice (DOJ) faced off before U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema on September 22, 2025, to discuss remedies for what the court had previously ruled to be Google’s unlawful monopoly in the ad tech industry. Following a legal dispute in April 2025, Judge Brinkema assessed Google liable for engaging in anticompetitive behaviour that benefited its own ad tech company at the expense of rivals and publishers.
In its initial complaint in 2023, the DOJ charged that Google had abused its power to harm advertisers and website publishers that employed rival tech providers. As Professor Harry First of New York University eloquently stated, “It’s as if they were running the website that connects people, and they were looking for a date, trying to get a date.” CBS News said, “That’s Google’s business.”
The actual displays are coming during the remedies phase, which is anticipated to proceed for two weeks. Federal prosecutors are pleading with the judge to compel Alphabet, the parent company of Google, to sell ad space. According to The Hill, Julia Tarver Wood, the principal attorney for the DOJ, contended that “addressing Google’s monopoly power would require nothing less than structural change.” Google’s publisher ad network, DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP), would be “phased” out as part of the government’s plan to sell off its ad exchange, AdX, as a whole.
As part of this, the code that decides winning bids and pricing in ad auctions will be made publicly available. This is a first that has the potential to drastically change the way internet advertisements are purchased and sold.