{"id":609453,"date":"2025-09-03T10:53:33","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T08:53:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=609453"},"modified":"2025-09-03T10:54:24","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T08:54:24","slug":"google-dodges-chrome-sale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/internet\/609453-google-dodges-chrome-sale.html","title":{"rendered":"Google dodges Chrome sale"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Alphabet Inc.\u2019s Google will be required to share online search data with rivals while avoiding harsher penalties, including the forced sale of its Chrome business, a judge ruled<\/a> in the biggest US antitrust case in almost three decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tuesday\u2019s ruling represents a blow to the government, falling far short of the most severe remedies sought by antitrust enforcers after the court found Google illegally monopolised the search market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Judge Amit Mehta said he will bar Google from entering into exclusive contracts for distribution but would still allow the search giant to pay its partners \u2014 a key win for Apple Inc., which has received roughly $20 billion a year for making Google search the default on iPhones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The finding follows the Washington, DC, judge\u2019s\u00a0ruling last year\u00a0<\/a>that Google illegally monopolised the markets for online search and search advertising. Mehta held a\u00a0three-week hearing<\/a>\u00a0in April to determine a fix.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a statement, Google praised the decision for recognizing how AI has changed the search industry, but said the company continues to disagree with Mehta\u2019s earlier ruling that it monopolised online search. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The search giant also said it was worried about the data sharing requirements the judge imposed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have concerns about how these requirements will impact our users and their privacy, and we\u2019re reviewing the decision closely,\u201d said Lee-Anne Mulholland, vice president of regulatory affairs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe court did recognise that divesting Chrome and Android would have gone beyond the case\u2019s focus on search distribution, and would have harmed consumers and our partners.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shares of Alphabet surged as much as 8.7% in extended trading following the release of the judge\u2019s ruling. Apple shares climbed as much as 4.3%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe ruling is far better than feared for Google,\u201d said Nat Schindler, an analyst at Scotiabank. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The order is one of the most monumental court decisions affecting the tech sector in more than a quarter century, and could offer a blueprint for other judges who may end up weighing similar choices in cases against Meta Platforms Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Apple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In another win for Google, the judge didn\u2019t bar the company from making payments to third parties including Apple for default browser placement in browsers or on mobile devices. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCutting off payments from Google almost certainly will impose substantial \u2014 in some cases, crippling \u2014 downstream harms to distribution partners, related markets, and consumers, which counsels against a broad payment ban,\u201d the judge wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sharing Search data<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Under the ruling, Google will be required to share some of its search data with competitors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those competitors could include Microsoft Corp. and DuckDuckGo Inc., as well as many of the new AI companies like OpenAI and Perplexity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That data would aid in building out competing search engines or artificial intelligence models.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The judge also ruled that Google can no longer require device makers to take all of its apps in order to access the Google Play Store on Android \u2014 a second modest win for the Justice Department in addition to the data-sharing requirement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGoogle is being held accountable,\u201d DOJ antitrust head Gail Slater said in a post on X. \u201cThe court didn\u2019t order all of our requested relief, and we are weighing our options. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the court did agree with the need for remedies that will restore competition and reopen the digital playing field, driving investment and innovation that will ensure America leads the next era of technology.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But multiple Google opponents criticised the decision as not going far enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe do not believe the remedies ordered by the court will force the\u00a0changes necessary<\/a>\u00a0to adequately address Google\u2019s illegal behaviour,\u201d said DuckDuckGo CEO Gabriel Weinberg, who testified at the trial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGoogle will still be allowed to continue to use its monopoly to hold back competitors, including in AI search.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Allowing the payments for browser placement to continue is a win for Apple, which favors the Google search engine by giving it the best placement in Safari search bar on computer and mobile devices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Users can opt to switch to Microsoft Corp.\u2019s Bing, DuckDuckGo and other options.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Allowing Google to keep making payments to Apple will give the iPhone maker a much needed reprieve for its services segment, which is already under fire globally from regulators trying to break up its $100 billion per year App Store business. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The judge\u2019s ruling indicates that the default arrangement can continue \u2014 with minor adjustments.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alternative search engines<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

These include that Apple will need to better promote alternative search engines and make changes to its default search engine settings annually. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The judge also ruled that users must be able to set a different default search engine for privacy mode, an ask that Apple already addressed several months ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Google can still pay Apple, Mehta said that could change. \u201cFor now, Google will be permitted to pay distributors for default placement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are strong reasons not to jolt the system and to allow market forces to do the work,\u201d Mehta wrote. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the judge said he\u2019s \u201cprepared to revisit a payment ban (or a lesser remedy) if competition is not substantially restored through the remedies the court does impose.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perplexity declined to comment. Microsoft, OpenAI and Anthropic didn\u2019t immediately respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The case against Google was initially filed in the final months of the first Trump administration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a 10-week trial in 2023, which was\u00a0<\/strong>shepherded by then-President Joe Biden\u2019s Justice Department, Mehta sided with the government in August 2024. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his decision, Mehta said that Google illegally dominated the search market by paying more than $26 billion to Apple and other companies to make its search engine the default option on smartphones and web browsers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To address the judge\u2019s findings, the Justice Department proposed that Google be forced to sell its popular Chrome web browser and share some of the data it collects to create its search results. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also asked Mehta to ban Google from paying for search engine defaults \u2014 a bar that would also apply to Google\u2019s AI products, including Gemini, which the government says were aided by the company\u2019s illegal monopoly in search.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the hearing this spring, Google argued that the government\u2019s proposals were too extreme. The company said that the remedies would hurt America\u2019s consumers, economy and position as a world leader in technology. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Justice Department \u2018Overreached\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Mehta said in his ruling that the government \u201coverreached in seeking forced divestiture of these key assets, which Google did not use to effect any illegal restraints.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The judge directed the two sides to come back by Sep. 10 with a new remedy proposal consistent with his ruling or file a status report outlining any disagreements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Google is facing another possible breakup in a second Justice Department case challenging its monopoly over technology used to buy, sell and display advertising around the web. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

US District Judge Leonie Brinkema in Virginia ruled in\u00a0favour\u00a0of the government earlier this year and will hold a hearing in September to determine whether to force the company to sell tools used by websites selling ad space.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As part of one of the biggest US antitrust cases in three decades, a judge has ordered Google to share online search data with rivals. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341034,"featured_media":570794,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[32030,723,12911,605,43520,26900,167,13209,96533,73842,13567,82539],"class_list":["post-609453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-internet","tag-alphabet","tag-amazon","tag-antitrust","tag-apple","tag-chrome-browser","tag-duckduckgo","tag-google","tag-google-search","tag-judge-amit-mehta","tag-meta-platforms","tag-search-engines","tag-us-department-of-justice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609453"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341034"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=609453"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609453\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":609483,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609453\/revisions\/609483"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/570794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=609453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=609453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=609453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}