So, Google isn’t getting split in half like a messy divorce, but Uncle Sam isn’t letting it roam free either. A U.S. federal judge just handed down some “behavioral remedies” — basically new rules to keep the search giant from flexing its monopoly muscles too hard.
Judge Amit Mehta’s order (not final yet, but spicy enough to make headlines) says Google can’t cut shady exclusivity deals that tie its most popular products — Search, Chrome, Google Assistant, or even Gemini — to revenue-sharing or app distribution agreements. Translation: no more “if you want this, you must also take that” contracts that quietly kill competition.
That’s not all. Google also has to share parts of its search index and user-interaction data with “qualified competitors.” Yes, the company that has been dominating about 90% of the search market for the last decade now has to open the gates a bit. Competitors will get standard access to search and ad syndication services so they can build their own tech without starting from scratch.
The Department of Justice (DOJ), of course, wanted more — like forcing Google to sell Chrome or even Android. That didn’t happen (sorry, regulators), but Apple is probably popping champagne after-hours since it gets to keep cashing in on its lucrative default search deal with Google. For context: Google shelled out over $26B in 2021 just to stay the default on devices, and nearly $18B of that went to Apple alone. That’s some expensive real estate.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai isn’t thrilled, though. He warned that forced data-sharing could amount to “de facto divestiture,” aka ripping Google Search apart from the inside. Judge Mehta, meanwhile, is keeping things closer to Europe’s playbook (the Digital Markets Act) but made his version narrower and temporary.
And this saga is far from over. Google’s also fighting a parallel case over its ad-tech monopoly — remedies for that trial kick off later this month. Experts say this drama could stretch all the way to 2028. So, yeah, grab some popcorn the Google trust show is just getting started.
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