In a recent development in the U.S. Department of Justice's antitrust lawsuit against Google, a federal judge has broadened the prescribed measures by imposing a one-year cap on agreements that position Google's search engine and AI tools as the preset options on various devices, according to Bloomberg. Issued by Judge Amit Mehta last Friday, this decision requires Google to revisit these arrangements annually, fostering greater equity for competing firms. These updated provisions follow Mehta's September determination that rejected the DOJ's late-2024 suggestion to divest the Chrome browser.
The broader context stems from an autumn ruling finding that Google unlawfully preserved its dominance in online search by compensating entities like Apple to set its engine as the standard on their products and securing sole distribution pacts for offerings including Search, Chrome, and Gemini. Mehta's September decision terminates such restrictive pacts and obliges Google to provide portions of its search information to competitors, aiming to reduce the competitive disparity resulting from its prior strategies.