U.S. website publishers that directly paid Google to sell display ads through its AdX ad exchange between December 15, 2016 and March 31, 2024 are members of a certified class seeking $1.72 billion, and a federal judge let their antitrust claims against Google proceed toward trial on September 30, 2026. There is no settlement, verdict or claim form yet, so nothing can be claimed now.
Class Certified · No Settlement or Verdict Yet
This article describes pending class action litigation. Google denies the class’s claims, and no jury has decided whether Google owes the class anything. The damages figures below are the plaintiffs’ expert estimates, not awards. There is nothing to claim at this time. This page is informational and is not legal advice.
Who Qualifies for the Google AdX Class
The court certified the class in December 2025. Under the court-approved notice, it covers persons and entities in the United States and its territories that directly paid Google for services associated with selling advertising impressions on websites through Google’s AdX ad exchange from December 15, 2016 through March 31, 2024. Instream video transactions are excluded.“Directly paid” is broader than writing Google a check. The certification order counts both fees paid directly to Google and reductions in the advertising revenue Google paid out, which is how AdX normally took its cut: Google kept a share of each sale and passed the rest to the publisher. A U.S. publisher that sold open-web display ads through AdX during those dates is the core of the class. Multi-Customer Management (MCM) firms, which manage ad inventory for other publishers, are included when they are located in the United States and Google paid them directly.
Three groups are outside the class:
- Publishers that sent in an exclusion request by the April 13, 2026 opt-out deadline.
- Publishers whose AdX sales were instream video ads.
- Publishers that sold only through Google AdSense. The court declined in December 2025 to certify a separate AdSense class, and that claim is not being pursued class-wide.
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Who Can Claim Money — and When
No one can claim money today. There is no settlement fund, no jury verdict and no claim form, and the official class notice says there is no money available now and no guarantee there will be.If the class wins at trial or reaches a settlement with Google, the people who could collect are the class members described above who did not opt out. The court would approve how any money is divided and how class members file, and the official class website would publish those instructions. Court-approved attorneys’ fees and costs would be deducted from any recovery. Class members are bound by the result either way, including a verdict for Google.
How Much Money Is at Stake
The class’s expert economist, Professor Einer Elhauge, calculated about $1.72 billion in class-wide damages through March 31, 2024, with damages continuing to accrue after that date. His theory is that Google’s conduct let it charge publishers a 19.67% take rate on AdX sales, against a 10% rate he says Google would have charged in a competitive market. The class claims the difference.Two large publishers are suing Google separately rather than as class members, and the same ruling reported their experts’ numbers:
- Daily Mail (Associated Newspapers Ltd. and Mail Media, Inc.): $599,955,198, of which $216,880,035 is U.S. damages.
- Gannett: $900,771,489, of which $797,831,266 is U.S. damages.
What the September 30 Ruling Decided
Senior U.S. District Judge P. Kevin Castel of the Southern District of New York ruled on motions in several cases that are coordinated in In re Google Digital Advertising Antitrust Litigation, MDL No. 3010. For the AdX class, Google’s motion for summary judgment was denied:- The “Act 1” tying claim survived. Earlier rulings bar Google from relitigating the Virginia federal court’s 2025 findings that it unlawfully tied its DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP) ad server to AdX and willfully maintained monopoly power in the ad server and ad exchange markets. The class must still prove injury and damages.
- The “Act 2” tying claim also survived. The class alleges Google used Dynamic Allocation, Enhanced Dynamic Allocation, Dynamic Revenue Share and Unified Pricing Rules to steer DFP users’ sales onto AdX. The judge ruled a reasonable jury could find these worked as an unlawful tie; the claim has not been proven.
- Google’s argument that the class claims were filed too late was rejected.
- Google lost its bid to cut about $152 million in class damages tied to U.S. ad-management firms working for foreign websites.
- Google’s request to exclude the class’s damages experts was denied.
What Happens Next
The ruling clears the class claims for trial, but no trial date has been set. The parties can still settle before a verdict. A settlement would need court approval and would come with its own notice and claims process.The judge deferred any ruling on injunctive relief for the class until after a trial. He pointed to a September 2, 2026 remedies decision in the separate U.S. Department of Justice case in Virginia, which bars Google from tying DFP to AdX and from bringing back First Look, Last Look and Unified Pricing Rules, and requires Google to integrate AdX and DFP with header bidding. That order changes how the products work going forward; it does not pay publishers for past losses.
This page will be updated when a trial date is set, a settlement is announced or a claims process opens.
Questions
Who qualifies for the Google AdX publisher class action?
The certified class covers persons and entities in the United States and its territories that directly paid Google for services associated with selling advertising impressions on websites through Google’s AdX ad exchange from December 15, 2016 through March 31, 2024. Paying Google includes fees paid directly and reductions in the ad revenue Google paid out. Instream video transactions are excluded. Publishers that excluded themselves by the April 13, 2026 deadline are no longer in the class.
Can I file a claim for money now?
No. There is no settlement, no verdict and no claim form. The class website states there is no money available now and no guarantee there will be. Class members who did not opt out stay in the class automatically and would share in any future settlement or judgment through a process the court would announce.
How much money is the AdX class seeking?
The class’s expert economist calculated about $1.72 billion in class-wide damages through March 31, 2024, with additional damages accruing after that date. That figure is the class’s claim, not an award. A jury would decide whether Google caused the class antitrust injury and how much, if anything, it owes.
Are publishers that used only Google AdSense included?
The certified class is defined by sales through AdX. In December 2025 the court declined to certify a separate class of AdSense publishers, so AdSense-only claims are not being pursued on a class-wide basis. Publishers unsure whether their sales ran through AdX can check the official class website.
Can I still opt out of the class?
The deadline to exclude yourself was April 13, 2026, under the court-approved notice. Publishers that did not opt out remain in the class and are bound by its outcome, whether that is a settlement, a verdict for the class or a verdict for Google.
Sources
- Opinion and Order on summary judgment, September 30, 2026 (ECF 432 in No. 1:21-cv-03446; ECF 2041 in No. 1:21-md-03010), via CourtListener.
- Official AdX Class Action Website — In re Google Digital Publisher Antitrust Litigation.
- Court-approved class notice, February 27, 2026, via PR Newswire.
- Bloomberg Law — Google’s Ad Tech Litigation Defense Grows as Publishers Pile On.
