Google’s ad tech remedies decoded: what changes, what doesn’t and what will take years

September 18, 2026

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Google monopolized online advertising and the remedy is a code of conduct.

Seventeen months of post-verdict wrangling brought the industry to this point. Judge Leonie M. Brinkema ruled the online ad behemoth had indeed come by its dominance illegally last April. Then came the remedies trial, testimonies from 26 witnesses, briefs from both sides, a two-page order this September that rejected breaking Google up, and finally the full opinion this week spelling out what Google actually has to do.

All of it traces back to a complaint the Department of Justice and 17 states filed three and a half years ago.

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