A Federal Judge of the United States rejected on Tuesday the demand of the US government that Google Buy your Chrome web browser as part of an important antitrust case, but imposed measures aimed at repairing competition in online searches.
The historical ruling occurred after Judge Amit Mehta determined in August 2024 that Google kept monopolies in online searches through exclusive distribution agreements valued at billions of dollars annually.
The judge’s decision in the case of Google represents one of the most significant failures against corporate monopolistic practices in two decades.
The government pressed for the sale of Chrome, a browser that serves as a crucial access door to the activity on the Internet and facilitates a third of all searches on the Google website.
But in his ruling, Mehta warned that a chrome divestment “would be incredibly disorderly and highly risky” and said that government lawyers had exceeded their request.
ACCORDANCE
“Today’s decision recognizes how much the industry has changed thanks to the advance of AI (artificial intelligence), which is giving people many more ways to find information,” said Lee-Anne Mulholland, vice president of Google regulatory issues.
“This underlines what we have been saying since this case was presented in 2020: the competition is intense and people can easily choose the services they want,” he said.
Mulholland added that Google has “concerns” about how the requirements imposed by the court to share search data and limit the distribution of services will affect user privacy.
Judge Mehta’s decision could fundamentally remodel the future of the technological giant.
The Department of Justice described the changes required as “significant.”
“We will continue to review the opinion (judicial) to consider the options of the Department (of Justice) and the following steps in search of additional relief (solutions, NDLR),” said Abigail Slater, assistant to the attorney general, in a statement.
Offensive against great technological
The case focused mainly on the expensive distribution agreements of Google with Apple, Samsung and other smartphone manufacturers that established Google as the predetermined search engine on iPhones and other devices.
Under this agreement, Google pays Apple tens of billions of dollars annually for a privileged place on the iPhone.
In his decision last year, Judge Mehta concluded that Google’s default status on the iPhone allowed the company to evolve towards an Internet power, to protect competitive threats.
But Mehta said Tuesday that a total prohibition of these agreements was discarded, insisting that such prohibition could have a too deep effect in other companies.
On the other hand, after its decision, Google must make available to “qualified competitors” search index (those that stores the search engine) and user interaction information that the rivals can use to improve their services.
The failure also specifically addresses the emerging threat of generative artificial intelligence chatbots such as chatgpt, extending restrictions to prevent Google from using exclusive agreements to master the AI space as it did with the traditional search.
A technical committee will supervise the implementation of the measures, which enter into force 60 days after the final failure is registered.
Minutes after the judge’s decision, Alphabet’s actions, the Google parent company, fired 7.5% in the operations after closing. Apple shares rose more than 3%.
“This is a monstrous victory for (Apple) and for Google it is a failure that eliminates a great weight on its actions,” said Dan Iives, from Wedbush Securities.
Currently, the United States has five pending antitrust cases against important technological companies.
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