Google Dodges Chrome Sale, Other Penalties in U.S. Antitrust Case

Judge allows Google to keep its Chrome browser and high-stakes agreement with Apple

- Dave Michaels & Katherine Blunt

Google avoided harsh antitrust penalties for its conduct in the U.S. search market, with a judge barring the company from entering into exclusive deals but rejecting a forced spinoff of its Chrome browser and other sweeping remedies sought by the Justice Department.

U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta in a Tuesday ruling said Google can't pay to be the exclusive search engine on devices and browsers, but he allowed the company to continue making payments for distribution of its products, saying a prohibition on those agreements would harm recipients such as Apple.

Mehta's order follows his ruling last year that Google illegally monopolized the search market for more than a decade. That opinion said Google used illegal distribution agreements with companies such as Apple to build and maintain a 90% market share and prevent rivals from developing competitive alternatives.

While Mehta's earlier ruling was a blow to Google, Tuesday's decision adopted much of the company's position on what should happen now. Mehta said a judge's job was to approach remedies with humility, and he said the competitive dynamics of the marketplace were changing already, largely because of AI technology.

"There are strong reasons not to jolt the system and to allow market forces to do the work," Mehta wrote.

Wall Street analysts scored the ruling a huge win for Google and Apple since it allowed an existing arrangement to continue in which Google pays Apple more than $20 billion a year to be the default search provider on the Safari browser.

The ruling paves the way for the two companies to partner further on AI-related services on Apple devices, analysts said. Apple currently has a deal with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT into various iPhone services. Apple and Google have had talks about striking a similar deal for Google's AI system called Gemini.