Google Avoids Chrome Breakup but Must Share Search Data With Competitors

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia today imposed remedies in the Justice Department’s monopolization case against Google, ordering the tech giant to share critical search data with competitors and outlawing exclusive distribution agreements for its flagship products. The ruling stops short of forcing Google to divest Chrome but mandates structural changes designed to restore competition in online search and search advertising. At the centre of United States et al. v.

Google is Google’s stranglehold on general search services, where it has commanded roughly 90 percent of U.S. queries for years by locking in default placements and revenue-sharing deals on billions of devices. The court found that Google violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act by maintaining its monopoly through exclusionary agreements that preinstall Google Search, Chrome, Google Assistant, and the Gemini app, while prohibiting rivals from gaining similar access.

Remedies ordered include a ban on exclusive contracts that condition the distribution of one Google app on the licensing of another, prohibitions on tying revenue-share payments, restrictions on long-term revenue-sharing deals, and prohibitions on preventing partners from installing competing search engines, browsers, or generative AI products.

It also requires access to Google's search index and anonymised user-interaction data, and mandates search and search text ads- syndication services to enable rivals to serve ads alongside results.