Court allows Google keep Chrome browser and Android OS

A U.S. federal court has ruled in the largest antitrust case against Google in decades. Judge Amit Mehta ruled that the company will not have to sell its Chrome browser or Android operating system, as the Justice Department had insisted, but Google will be required to share search data with competitors.

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The court found that Google illegally monopolized the online search market, but limited itself to prohibiting exclusive deals that made its search engine the only default option. At the same time, the company will still be able to pay partners to host its search engine – this is especially important for Apple, which receives about $ 20 billion annually for integrating Google Search.

Google has also been ordered to share its online search data with other market players, including Microsoft, DuckDuckGo, OpenAI and Perplexity.

The decision could be a game-changer for the industry, giving competitors access to information that has long been Google’s exclusive domain for the first time, opening up the possibility of new services and weakening Google’s dominance.