Judge allows Google to keep Chrome

But must hand over some data to rivals

- DAVID MCCABE

Google must hand over its search results and some data to rival companies but does not need to break itself up by selling its Chrome web browser, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday.

The decision, by Judge Amit P. Mehta of the US District Court for the District of Columbia, falls short of the sweeping changes proposed by the government to rein in the power of Silicon Valley.

Judge Mehta said in the 223-page ruling that Google must share some of its search data with “qualified competitors” to resolve its monopoly. The Justice Department had asked the judge to force the company to share even more of its data, arguing it was key to Google’s dominance.

Judge Mehta also put restrictions on payments that Google uses to ensure its search engine gets prime placement in web browsers and on smartphones. But he stopped short of banning those payments entirely and did not grant the government's request that Google be forced to sell Chrome, which the government said was necessary to remedy the company’s power as a search monopoly.

“Notwithstanding this power, courts must approach the task of crafting remedies with a healthy dose of humility?” Judge Mehta said in Tuesday's decision. “This court has done so.”

The decision on how to remedy a monopoly — the first of its kind in the modern internet era — is the most significant attempt to level the tech playing field since an antitrust ruling against Microsoft more than 20 years ago. Google had planned to appeal, and the case is likely to be mired in the courts for years.

The conservative ruling is a blow to the government's all-out push in recent years to challenge the dominance of the biggest tech companies. Under both Joe Biden and the Trump administrations, the federal government accused Google, Apple, Amazon and Meta of anti-competitive behaviour meant to illegally monopolise parts of the internet.