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Publishers Win Class Certification in Antitrust Case Against Google Ad Exchange

By  |  December 15, 2025

A group of publishers pursuing an antitrust lawsuit against Alphabet Inc.’s Google has secured a key procedural victory after a federal judge approved class certification for part of the case involving Google’s advertising marketplace, AdX.

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    According to Reuters, the decision allows publishers who sold digital advertising space through Google’s AdX Ad Exchange to move forward collectively, rather than as individual plaintiffs. The ruling centers on claims that Google’s conduct in operating the platform caused competitive harm to publishers that relied on the exchange to sell ad impressions on their websites.

    US District Judge P. Kevin Castel of the Southern District of New York issued the decision on Dec. 12, finding that the publishers had sufficiently alleged antitrust injury to justify class treatment, per Bloomberg. The certified class includes publishers that directly paid Google for services related to selling advertising impressions through AdX during the period from Dec. 15, 2016, through March 31, 2024.

    Related: Google Faces Antitrust Scrutiny Over AI Overviews and News Content

    The class certification marks an important step in the broader litigation challenging Google’s dominance in digital advertising markets. As Bloomberg reports, the ruling does not resolve the underlying antitrust claims, but it strengthens the publishers’ position by allowing them to pursue damages as a group, potentially increasing the stakes for Google as the case moves forward.

    Source: Reuters