The U.S. federal court ruled that while the sale of the Chrome browser is not necessary to resolve Google's monopoly in the search market, the company must share data with competitors. Accordingly, the first trial of the antitrust lawsuit against Google, filed in 2020, has concluded after about five years.
Amit Mehta, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., acknowledged on the 2nd (local time) that Google has illegally maintained a monopoly in the online search market but stated that the company is not obligated to sell Chrome or the Android operating system. The ruling also indicated that Google can continue to incur expenses amounting to billions of dollars paid to device manufacturers like Apple and Samsung to prioritize its search engine.
However, the court required Google to share the search data it holds with competitors to promote competition and prohibited the company from entering exclusive agreements with specific device manufacturers that prevent the pre-installation of competitor products. This only accepts the data-sharing proposal among the measures suggested by the Department of Justice.
Google has strongly opposed the data-sharing requirement, arguing that it effectively relinquishes its intellectual property rights, and plans to appeal this ruling. The U.S. Department of Justice is also expected to consider an appeal, meaning the final conclusion may take several more years.
This case is regarded as the largest antitrust trial targeting big tech since the antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft regarding the Windows operating system in the 1990s.
Meanwhile, Google's stock, which closed down 0.72% on the New York stock market that day, surged about 8% in after-hours trading following the ruling.