Google will not be forced to break up its search business, but a federal judge has tentatively ordered other changes to the tech giant’s business practices to keep it from further anticompetitive behavior.
U.S. District Court Judge Amit P. Mehta outlined remedies on Tuesday that would bar Google from entering or maintaining exclusive deals that tie the distribution of Search, Chrome, Google Assistant, or Gemini to other apps or revenue arrangements. For example, Google wouldn’t be able to condition Play Store licensing on the distribution of certain apps, or tie revenue-share payments to keeping certain apps.
Google will also have to share certain search index and user-interaction data with “qualified competitors” to prevent exclusionary behavior, and it must offer search and search ad syndication services to competitors at standard rates so they can deliver quality results while building their own technology.
Mehta has not yet issued a final judgment. Instead, he ordered Google and the Department of Justice to “meet and confer” and submit a revised final judgment by September 10 that aligns with his opinion.
The behavioral remedies come a year after Mehta ruled that Google acted illegally to maintain a monopoly in online search. A technical committee will be established to help enforce the final judgment, which will last six years and go into effect 60 days after entry.
The DOJ, which filed its antitrust suit against Google in 2020, had advocated for stronger penalties. It wanted to force Google to divest its Chrome browser and possibly Android, which resulted in some unsolicited acquisition bids, and end its agreements with Apple, Samsung, and other partners in which the tech giant paid those companies billions to make its search engine appear as the default choice on their devices and web browsers.
Apple stock popped after-hours on the news that it could continue its lucrative agreement with Google. Google spent more than $26 billion in 2021 alone to …