Google Keeps AdX, but the Ad Tech Ruling Rewrites How Its Auctions Work Worldwide

Judge Brinkema's unsealed opinion swaps a breakup for six years of global conduct rules, a court-appointed monitor and forced interoperability with Prebid.

Marcus Tan

2 min read · Sep 17

Judge Leonie Brinkema's full 106-page remedies opinion in the US ad tech case against Google was unsealed on Wednesday, two weeks after a short order in which she refused the Justice Department's request to force a sale of the AdX exchange. The detail confirms that Google keeps its ad tech stack intact. In exchange it accepts six years of behavioural rules, a court-appointed monitor with real investigative powers, an internal compliance officer, and a technical committee to settle disputes. The rules apply wherever Google's ad tech operates, not just in the US. The parties owe the court a joint proposed final judgment by 2 October, and the remedies take effect 60 days after it is entered.

What Google has to change

The conduct rules go further than "behave better" and are specific enough to matter to anyone running ads on the open web:

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Responses (2)

Amira ZainalSep 17
The Prebid interfaces are the part publishers will feel. Header bidding already costs a lot of main-thread time, so I hope someone measures the latency impact before everyone switches it on.
Lin WeiSep 18
Global scope by default is the quiet headline. Regulators elsewhere just had their remedy written for them in Virginia.

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Google Keeps AdX, but the Ad Tech Ruling Rewrites How Its Auctions Work Worldwide

What Google has to change

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Responses (2)

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