Google Avoids Breakup in Search Monopoly Case, but Judge Orders Other Changes in Landmark Ruling

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge on Tuesday rejected the U.S. government’s request to force Google to sell its Chrome browser but ordered the company to change aspects of its search engine to curb anticompetitive practices.

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta ruled that Google must give rivals access to certain data from its search engine, built from trillions of queries, while stopping short of blocking the company’s multi-billion-dollar deals that make Google the default search engine on smartphones and computers.

The decision comes as AI-powered “answer engines” like ChatGPT increasingly challenge Google’s dominance as the main gateway to the internet.