A federal judge on Tuesday ordered Google to overhaul its search engine practices in a bid to rein in its illegal monopoly, but refused to break up the company.
Google avoided a breakup order after U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta ruled it had created an illegal monopoly, with his ruling outlining steps to loosen the company’s grip on online searches. Mehta imposed new restrictions on how Google steers traffic to its products but stopped short of banning the multi-billion-dollar default search deals that helped cement its power.
Mehta barred Google from signing exclusive contracts central to the case and ordered the company to share limited user-interaction data with select competitors. He rejected the government’s call to break off Chrome or Android, writing that prosecutors overreached by targeting assets not used to impose illegal restraints.
The ruling sent Google shares up more than 6% in after-hours trading, while Apple rose over 3%, as the decision allows Google to keep paying for default placement on Apple devices—a deal worth about $20 billion annually. Alphabet, the parent company of Google, may now appeal the decision, though none of the key parties immediately responded to requests for comment.
Mehta’s ruling comes as Google faces mounting pressure on multiple regulatory fronts, including new scrutiny from Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson over Gmail’s alleged political bias. In an Aug. 28 letter to Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, Ferguson raised concerns that Gmail’s spam filters disproportionately block Republican political emails while allowing similar Democratic messages through. He warned that the practice may violate federal regulations and could prompt an investigation.
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