THE NEW YORK TIMES: Judge orders Google to share search results to help resolve monopoly
Google must hand over its search results and some data to rival companies but will not need to break itself up, a federal judge ruled Tuesday, a decision in a landmark antitrust case that falls short of the sweeping changes proposed by the government to rein in the power of Silicon Valley.
Judge Amit P. Mehta of the US District Court for the District of Columbia said in a ruling that to resolve Google’s monopoly in search, the company must share some of its search data with companies that are “qualified competitors”.
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.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.Mehta also put restrictions on payments that Google uses to ensure its search engine gets prime placement on smartphones in web browsers.
But he stopped short of banning those payments entirely and did not grant the government’s request that Google be forced to sell its popular Chrome web browser, which the government said was necessary to remedy Google’s power as a monopoly.
“Notwithstanding this power, courts must approach the task of crafting remedies with a healthy dose of humility,” said Mehta in Tuesday’s decision. “This court has done so.”
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 the Biden and Trump administrations, the federal government accused Google, Apple, Amazon and Meta of anti-competitive behaviour meant to illegally monopolise parts of the internet.
“It’s the most important antitrust case of the 21st century,” said Bill Baer, who was an assistant attorney general for antitrust in the Obama administration. “And, of course, the battle is not over, because there will be appeals and appeals and appeals.”
Mehta’s decision in the case, which is the first government monopoly lawsuit against a modern tech giant to go from filing to remedies, will set the tone as courts consider other antitrust cases accusing large tech companies of abusing their power, most prominently against Google.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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Originally published on The New York Times
