USA: Court Finds Google a Monopoly, but Does Not Order the Sale of Chrome and Android
Washington, September 2025 — Judge Amit Mehta, in a 230-page ruling, found that Google holds a monopoly position in the search engine market and has been protecting it by creating barriers for competitors. However, the US Department of Justice’s demands for Google to break up, sell the Chrome browser, or the Android operating system were rejected by the court.
The court ruled that the government’s demands went beyond what is reasonable. Instead of splitting the corporation, the ruling imposes other competition measures: Google will no longer be able to impose exclusive agreements that make Chrome, Google’s search service, or Gemini (its AI platform) “standard” on devices by default without any choice.
A part of the decision requires Google to share certain data with competitors: its search engine index and some user interaction data. This data is aimed at helping alternatives like Bing, DuckDuckGo, and emerging AI players such as OpenAI and Perplexity.
The market reaction was immediate: Alphabet’s (Google’s parent company) shares jumped nearly 7% after the verdict was announced. Analysts are already discussing that, despite the acknowledgment of the monopoly, Google avoided the worst-case scenario — a breakup and loss of control over its key assets.
