Google has been ordered to hand over some of its search data to rivals after a U.S. federal judge ruled that the company must take steps to curb its dominance in internet search.
In a decision described as the most significant antitrust ruling of the internet age, Judge Amit P. Mehta of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia said Google must share parts of its search results with “qualified competitors” to help level the playing field. The ruling follows a years-long case brought by the Justice Department, which accused the company of abusing its power to maintain a near-90 per cent share of the search market.
The government had pushed for far tougher remedies, including forcing Google to divest its Chrome web browser and banning the multibillion-dollar payments it makes to secure default search placement on smartphones and browsers such as Apple’s Safari and Mozilla’s Firefox. Those requests were denied, though Mehta did place restrictions on such agreements. In 2021, Google spent more than $26 billion on contracts to ensure its search engine was the default choice across devices.
“Notwithstanding this power, courts must approach the task of crafting remedies with a healthy dose of humility,” Mehta said, reflecting his decision not to impose structural changes such as a breakup. Google has confirmed it will appeal, meaning the case is likely to remain tied up in the courts for years.
The ruling marks the first time a monopoly case against a modern technology platform has reached the remedies stage, making it a bellwether for other challenges to Silicon Valley’s biggest companies. Under both the Trump and Biden administrations, regulators have filed lawsuits against Apple, Amazon, Meta and Google over alleged anticompetitive practices.
The stakes extend beyond search. Google is also facing separate lawsuits over its advertising technology, while Meta awaits a ruling on whether its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp illegally stifled competition. Amazon has been accused of squeezing smaller merchants, with a trial scheduled for 2027. Apple is fighting claims that it deliberately locks users into its ecosystem.
Former U.S. assistant attorney general Bill Baer called the Google ruling “the most important antitrust case of the 21st century”, warning that the battle is only beginning. “There will be appeals and appeals and appeals,” he said.
The decision comes as the nature of search itself is being transformed by artificial intelligence. Start-ups including OpenAI, Anthropic and Perplexity are already offering chatbots that can summarise information and plan tasks, while Google has integrated its own AI answers into the top of its results page and added a conversational search tab.
For now, Judge Mehta’s order forces Google to open up some of its data to competitors, curbing its power without dismantling the business. But the ruling has set a precedent. As other Big Tech antitrust battles move through the courts, it offers the clearest guide yet on how U.S. judges may attempt to restrain the digital monopolies of the 21st century.
