Google must share data with rivals to open up competition in online search, a judge in Washington ruled on Tuesday.
However, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta rejected a demand from Donald Trump‘s Justice Department to break up the internet giant by forcing it to sell off its Chrome browser.
It was the culmination of a landmark antitrust case that imposed sweeping remedies aimed at restoring competition in online search.
The major decision came a year after Judge Mehta found that Google illegally operated monopolies in online search and related advertising, holding exclusive distribution agreements worth billions of dollars a year.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai had claimed the data-sharing measures sought by the Justice Department could allow the tech giant’s rivals to reverse-engineer its technology.
The company has already said it would appeal.That means it could be years before Google has to comply with the judge’s ruling.
In his ruling the judge said Google would also not be required to sell off its Android operating system.
He wrote: ‘Google will not be required to divest Chrome; nor will the court include a contingent divestiture of the Android operating system in the final judgment.
‘Plaintiffs overreached in seeking forced divesture of these key assets, which Google did not use to effect any illegal restraints.’
Trump’s Justice Department, headed by Attorney General Pam Bondi, had argued that Google should be ordered to stop ‘compelled syndication.’
That process sees it make agreements for its search engine to be the default one used in browsers and phones.
It includes paying billions of dollars a year to Apple to be the default search engine on iPhones.
Last year, Morgan Stanley analysts concluded the amount paid annually by Google to Apple was $20 billion.
Following the ruling, shares in Alphabet, Google’s parent company, jumped 6 percent.
Shares in Apple also immediately rose 4 percent.
Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, will not see his company broken up following a landmark antitrust ruling
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, head of President Donald Trump’s Justice Department, which had argued Google should be forced to sell off its Chrome browser
This is a developing story
