In what is likely to come as a huge reprieve for Google and its parent Alphabet, a federal antitrust judge has now rejected some of the most radical remedies proposed by the Department of Justice to rectify Google's illegal monopolistic behavior.
For the benefit of those who might not be aware, the U.S. Department of Justice took Google to trial in Washington, DC, back in September 2023, alleging anti-competitive practices for maintaining its position as the default search engine on browsers and smartphones through substantial payments to partners such as Apple. State attorneys general pursued parallel antitrust suits, focusing on Google's advertising business and exclusionary agreements.
US District Court Judge Amit Mehta ruled back in 2024 that Alphabet's Google violated antitrust laws by maintaining an illegal monopoly in the search sphere. This then spawned a remedy trial that concluded in early May, 2025. The DOJ wanted the court to order Alphabet to divest the Chrome browser and its accompanying open-source Chromium project, going so far as to line up potential Chrome buyers, including Yahoo, OpenAI, and Perplexity.
For its part, Alphabet has continued to insist that a divestiture of Chrome would compromise user privacy and security, especially as Google's proprietary technology remains deeply embedded within the browser.
This brings us to today when the antitrust judge barred Google from entering into exclusive agreements that seek to prioritize its own search engine on other platforms, while also requiring the tech giant to share some data with its rival search engines.
However, the judge stopped short of ordering Google to divest either its Chrome browser or the Android OS, going so far as to term the government's request an "overreach." Critically, Google can continue to pay for the distribution of its products, including its search engine and AI-related offerings, as long as those agreements do not devolve into the exclusivity zone.
Judge Mehta believes that generative AI chatbots have emerged as a "nascent competitive threat" to Google. Accordingly, he has devised his remedies to ensure that Google’s "dominance in search does not carry over" into the AI space.
This means that Google can potentially continue to pay Apple around $20 billion per year for making available its search engine on the Safari browser. This arrangement would no longer be exclusive, however, and can easily lead to a reduction in the heretofore price tag.
Google previously stated that it would appeal the ruling, especially the liability clause in relation to its exclusivity agreements.
Do note that Perplexity AI submitted a $34.5 billion bid for Google Chrome in early August, one that was not seriously entertained by the search engine giant. Interestingly, Perplexity itself is currently valued at just around $18 billion.
To sweeten its offer, Perplexity AI had offered a commitment to Google to maintain its open-source Chromium project.
While we do not definitively know Chrome's enterprise value, recent estimates have ranged between $20 billion and $50 billion.
Alphabet still faces a remedy trial in Google's ad tech case, where again the search giant was found liable for maintaining an illegal monopoly.
Finally, Alphabet faces antitrust repercussions in Epic vs. Google case, where a federal jury concluded in December 2023 that Google maintained a monopoly on Android app distribution and in-app billing services.
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