{"id":120803,"date":"2025-09-03T07:05:51","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T07:05:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/index.php\/2025\/09\/03\/google-avoids-break-up-but-must-share-data-with-rivals\/"},"modified":"2025-09-03T07:05:51","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T07:05:51","slug":"google-avoids-break-up-but-must-share-data-with-rivals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/google-avoids-break-up-but-must-share-data-with-rivals\/","title":{"rendered":"Google avoids break-up but must share data with rivals"},"content":{"rendered":"

Google will not have to sell its Chrome web browser but must share information with competitors, a US federal judge has ordered.<\/p>\n

The remedies decided by District Judge Amit Mehta have emerged after a years-long court battle over Google\u2019s dominance in online search.<\/p>\n

The case centred around Google\u2019s position as the default search engine on a range of its own products such as Android and Chrome as well as others made by the likes of Apple.<\/p>\n

The US Department of Justice had demanded that Google sell Chrome \u2013 Tuesday\u2019s decision means the tech giant can keep it but it will be barred from having exclusive contracts and must share search data with rivals.<\/p>\n

Google had proposed less drastic solutions, such as limiting its revenue-sharing agreements with firms like Apple to make its search engine the default on their devices and browsers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, the company indicated that it viewed the ruling as a victory, and said the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) probably contributed to the outcome.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday\u2019s decision recognizes how much the industry has changed through the advent of AI, which is giving people so many more ways to find information,\u201d Google said in a statement after the ruling.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis underlines what we\u2019ve been saying since this case was filed in 2020: Competition is intense and people can easily choose the services they want,\u201d the statement continued.<\/p>\n

The tech giant had denied wrongdoing since charges were first filed against it in 2020, saying its market dominance is because its search engine is a superior product to others and consumers simply prefer it to others.<\/p>\n

Last year, Judge Mehta ruled that Google had used unfair methods to establish a monopoly over the online search market, actively working to maintain a level of dominance to the extent it broke US law.<\/p>\n

But in his decision, Judge Mehta said a complete sell-off of Chrome was \u201ca poor fit for this case\u201d.<\/p>\n

Google will also not have to sell off its Android operating system, which powers most of the world\u2019s smartphones.<\/p>\n

The company had argued that off-loading parts of its operations, such as Android, would mean they would effectively stop working properly.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday\u2019s remedy order agreed with the need to restore competition to the long-monopolized search market, and we are now weighing our options and thinking through whether the ordered relief goes far enough in serving that goal,\u201d Assistant Attorney General Abigail Slater wrote on X after the ruling.<\/a><\/p>\n

Shares in Alphabet, Google\u2019s parent company, jumped by more than 8% after the ruling.<\/p>\n

Smartphone-makers such as Apple, Samsung and Motorola will also benefit.<\/p>\n

Before the ruling, Google paid such firms billions of dollars to exclusively pre-load or promote the tech company\u2019s products.<\/p>\n

It was revealed at trial that Google paid more than $26bn for such deals with Apple, Mozilla and others in 2021.<\/p>\n

Now, Google will not be allowed to enter into any exclusive contracts for Google Search, Chrome, Google Assistant or the Gemini app.<\/p>\n

It means phone manufacturers will be free to pre-load or promote other search engines, browsers or AI assistants alongside Google\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Google will, however, be able to continue paying distributors for default placement.<\/p>\n

Gene Munster, managing partner at Deepwater Asset Management, said the ruling was \u201cgood news for big tech\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cApple also gets a nice win because the ruling forces Google to renegotiate the search deal annually,\u201d he said on X.<\/p>\n

Judge Mehta\u2019s ruling \u201cdoesn\u2019t seem to be as draconian as the market was expecting,\u201d said Melissa Otto, head of research at S&P Global Visible Alpha.<\/p>\n

With Google\u2019s search operation expected to generate close to $200bn this year, and tens of billions of that expected to go to distribution partners it is a win-win for the major corporate players involved in the case, Ms Otto said.<\/p>\n

But Google competitor DuckDuckGo said the order failed to \u201cforce the changes necessary to address Google\u2019s illegal behaviour\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a result, consumers will continue to suffer,\u201d said DuckDuckGo founder and CEO Gabriel Weinberg.<\/p>\n

The decision is not the end of the tech giant\u2019s court battles.<\/p>\n

Later this month, Google is scheduled to go to trial in a separate case brought by the Justice Department where a judge found the company holds illegal monopolies in online advertising technology.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Google will not have to sell its Chrome web browser but must share information with competitors, a US federal judge has ordered. The remedies decided by District Judge Amit Mehta have emerged after a years-long court battle over Google\u2019s dominance in online search. The case centred around Google\u2019s position as the default search engine on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-120803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120803\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}