Google can keep Chrome but must share search data with rivals, judge says

Sept 2 (Reuters) – A judge handed Alphabet’s (GOOGL.O), opens new tab Google a key victory on Tuesday, ruling against U.S. prosecutors’ bid to make the tech giant sell off its popular Chrome browser and Android operating system that was part of a larger antitrust crackdown on Big Tech, but ordering Google to share data with rivals to open up competition in online search.

Alphabet shares were up 7.8% in extended trading on Tuesday as investors cheered the judge’s ruling.

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Deepak Mathivanan, an analyst for Cantor Fitzgerald, said the data-sharing requirements pose a competitive risk to Google but not right away.

“It will take a longer period of time for consumers to also embrace these new experiences,” he said.

Spokespeople for the Department of Justice and Google did not immediately reply to requests for comment on Tuesday.

The ruling was also a relief for Apple (AAPL.O), opens new tab and other device and Web browser makers, whom U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta said can continue to receive advertising revenue-sharing payments from Google for searches on their devices. Google pays Apple $20 billion annually, Morgan Stanley analysts said last year.

But the ruling made it easier for device makers and others who set Google search as a default to load apps created by Google’s rivals.

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Google CEO Sundar Pichai expressed concerns at trial in the case in April that the data-sharing measures sought by the Justice Department could enable Google’s rivals to reverse-engineer its technology.

However, Mehta did not order Google to share the full range of data prosecutors had requested. And even for competitors who receive the data, “mimicking Google Search would be no easy task,” he wrote.

“For starters, this remedy requires only disclosure of underlying data; it will be up to [the competitors] to engineer the technology and develop the infrastructure to make use of it,” the judge said.

The ruling results from a five-year legal battle between one of the world’s most profitable companies and its home country, the U.S., where Mehta ruled last year that the company holds an illegal monopoly in online search and related advertising.

In addition to the case over search, Google is embroiled in litigation over its dominance in other markets.

The company recently said it will continue to fight a ruling requiring it to revamp its app store in a lawsuit won by “Fortnite” maker Epic Games.

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The Justice Department’s two cases against Google are part of a larger bipartisan crackdown by the U.S. on Big Tech firms, which began during President Donald Trump’s first term and includes cases against Meta Platforms (META.O), opens new tab, Amazon (AMZN.O), opens new tab and Apple.