A federal judge expanded on appeals decided in the Justice Department’s antitrust case against Google, ruling in favor of imposing a one-year limit on contracts that make Google’s search and AI services the default on devices, Bloomberg reports. Friday’s ruling by Judge Amit Mehta means Google will have to renegotiate these contacts every year, which would create a more level playing field for its competitors. The new details come after Mehta ruled in September that Google would not have to sell Chrome, as the DOJ proposed in late 2024.
This all follows last fall’s ruling that Google was illegally maintaining an internet search monopoly by paying companies like Apple to make its search engine the default on their devices and making exclusive deals around the distribution of services like Search, Chrome, and Gemini. Mehta’s decision in September ended these exclusive agreements and stipulates that Google will have to share some of its search data with its competitors in order to “close the scale gap” created by its actions.
