After eight years fighting one of the world’s biggest tech companies, Unlockd co-founder Matt Berriman has conceded defeat in his legal battle against Google over the collapse of his adtech startup. Google cited a breach of “a number of its policies” as its reason for banning Unlockd. Appeal rejectedThe 2021 case led to a US District judge tossing out the antitrust case at the pleading stage. The unsuccessful US appeal by Unlockd follows the 2025 US Justice Department adtech case Google lost. A Virginia Federal Court judge ruled that Google illegally acquired and maintained monopolies in two connected markets: open-web ad exchanges via Google’s AdX exchange; and publisher ad servers via what’s now known as Google Ad Manager.