A U.S. federal court rejected the Justice Department's request to force Google to split up its online advertising business, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.

The report said U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema in Alexandria, Virginia, found Google violated antitrust law but adopted a remedy other than forcing a sale of its ad exchange, an ad-trading platform.

Google's ad business functions like an exchange that matches advertiser orders with publisher ad space. Critics have said Google owns tools on both sides, creating a structure in which publishers have little choice but to pay excessive fees.

The Justice Department argued that a sale was the only solution to revive competition in the advertising market, but the judge rejected that. The court instead chose to limit Google's practice of pressuring publishers to use its ad technology in certain ways.

The ruling means Google's parent Alphabet will be free, about 20 years later, from an antitrust investigation that began during the Obama administration.

WSJ said the ruling marked the second case in which a court rejected a government attempt to break up Google.

Earlier, Judge Amit Mehta ruled that Google's dominance in the search market was illegal but did not order a breakup, saying consumers' search habits would change with the emergence of AI. Facebook parent Meta also avoided a Federal Trade Commission breakup attempt last year. The court said TikTok's emergence had undermined the basis for judging Meta's social media dominance.

Lee-Anne Mulholland (리앤 멀홀랜드), Google's vice president for regulatory affairs, welcomed the court's rejection of the breakup demand targeting tools that help small businesses win customers.

A Justice Department spokesperson said the agency was reviewing its next steps, while assessing that the order includes provisions that would substantially change how Google operates.

WSJ said some analysis suggests the ruling is unlikely to change the advertising industry landscape in the short term. Most advertisers have already shifted budgets to specific platforms such as YouTube, Instagram and Amazon, and the trend has become more pronounced since Apple introduced mobile privacy features in 2021.

Google's revenue in the previous quarter was $119.8 billion, of which network advertising revenue was just $7.3 billion.