Google win Antitrust case but face more days in court
A U.S. judge has ruled that Google will not be forced to sell its Chrome browser or Android operating system, marking a major victory for the tech giant in a lengthy antitrust case. The decision ends a five-year legal battle with U.S. regulators who accused Google of illegally monopolising the online search and advertising markets.
While Google can keep its core products and continue making high-value payments to Apple, it must now share key data with competitors to help increase market competition. Following the ruling, shares of Google’s parent company Alphabet rose over 7%, while Apple’s climbed 3%.
Judge Mehta noted that competition in the search market has changed with the rise of artificial intelligence and warned against enforcing drastic measures without a better understanding of how the market will develop in the future. Although Google avoided having to sell key parts of its business, the requirement to share data with competitors still forces the company to make major operational changes.
Separately, a federal jury in San Francisco found Google liable for violating user privacy by collecting data even after users had disabled tracking through the “Web & App Activity” setting. The jury ordered Google to pay $425 million in damages, though it found the company did not act with malice, so no punitive damages were awarded. Google plans to appeal, arguing the data was anonymised and not linked to individual users.
The case covers about 98 million users and 174 million devices. It adds to a series of privacy-related legal challenges for Google, including a $1.4 billion Texas settlement and a 2024 agreement to destroy data collected in private browsing mode.
On Sept 3rd, France’s data protection commission also fined Google $381 million for improperly displaying ads to Gmail users and using cookies without Google account users' consent.
These rulings could redefine how brands access consumer data and compete in search, opening new opportunities beyond Google’s ecosystem and challenging long-held digital marketing strategies.
Source:
