WASHINGTON (Chatnewstv.com) — The Justice Department said Tuesday it won significant remedies in its monopolization case against Google, with a federal court ordering measures aimed at restoring competition in online search and search advertising.
In a press statement released by the Office of Public Affairs, the department said the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia prohibited Google from entering or maintaining exclusive contracts involving Google Search, Chrome, Google Assistant, and the Gemini app. The court also ordered the company to share certain search index and user-interaction data with rivals and make syndication services for search and text ads available to competitors.
“The court’s ruling today recognizes the need for remedies that will pry open the market for general search services, which has been frozen in place for over a decade,” the department said. “The ruling also recognizes the need to prevent Google from using the same anticompetitive tactics for its GenAI products as it used to monopolize the search market.”
Attorney General Pamela Bondi called the outcome “an important step forward in the Department of Justice’s ongoing fight to protect American consumers.” She added, “Under President Trump’s leadership, we will continue our legal efforts to hold companies accountable for monopolistic practices.”
Assistant Attorney General Abigail Slater of the Antitrust Division said the ruling fulfills the case first launched during Trump’s initial term in office. “The first Trump administration sued Google to restore competition for millions of Americans subjected to Google’s monopoly abuses,” she said. “Today, the second Trump administration has won a remedy to do just that.”
Filed in October 2020, the Justice Department’s case against Google was joined by 11 state attorneys general and eventually grew to include 49 states, two territories, and the District of Columbia.
The remedies bar Google from conditioning licensing or revenue-sharing deals on the placement of its search engine, browser, or apps for more than one year, or from prohibiting partners from distributing rival search or GenAI products. Google will also be required to provide access to data and ad syndication services that could help competitors deliver their own search results.
The department said Google, which has long controlled about 90% of U.S. search queries, maintained its dominance through exclusionary agreements and default settings on billions of devices. The practices, the court found, violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act.
The ruling follows a nine-week bench trial that began in September 2023 and a remedies trial held this May.
