A federal judge today announced what remedies Google faces after the company was found to have a monopoly in online search.
On the operating system front, the Justice Department wanted Google to sell Chrome and the option to spin-off Android if other remedies did not work.
The district judge overseeing the case ruled today that Google does not have to sell the browser, or Android: “Plaintiffs overreached in seeking forced [divestiture] of these key assets, which Google did not use to effect any illegal restraints.” The case was filed in 2020 and the illegal monopoly ruling was made in August of 2024.
Additionally, Google can keep paying Apple, Mozilla (Firefox), and others to preload Search, Chrome, and AI products. The court recognized that a ban would cause “substantial—in some cases, crippling— downstream harms” to consumers and partners.
However, Google is barred from exclusive Search contracts that prohibit other providers from also being installed on devices.
The big change today is that Google must share “certain search index and user-interaction data, though not ads data” with “Qualified Competitors.” The aim is to “enable those firms to deliver high-quality search results and ads to compete with Google while they develop their own search technologies and capacity.”
…sharing will deny Google the fruits of its exclusionary acts and promote competition. The court, however, has narrowed the datasets Google will be required to share to tailor the remedy to its anticompetitive conduct.
The court will establish a “Technical Committee” that will last six years to help implement the final judgement.
Google previously said it would appeal.
Google on Tuesday issued the following statement:
Today’s decision recognizes how much the industry has changed through the advent of AI, which is giving people so many more ways to find information. This underlines what we’ve been saying since this case was filed in 2020: Competition is intense and people can easily choose the services they want. That’s why we disagree so strongly with the Court’s initial decision in August 2024 on liability.
Now the Court has imposed limits on how we distribute Google services, and will require us to share Search data with rivals. We have concerns about how these requirements will impact our users and their privacy, and we’re reviewing the decision closely. The Court did recognize that divesting Chrome and Android would have gone beyond the case’s focus on search distribution, and would have harmed consumers and our partners.
As always, we’re continuing to focus on what matters — building innovative products that people choose and love.
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