What was Judge Amit Mehta thinking? When he ruled a year ago that Google violated the Sherman Antitrust Act by stifling search competition, we thought Google was truly in hot water. Boy, were we wrong!
After Mehta’s initial ruling, the Department of Justice (DoJ) demanded that Google divest itself of the Chrome web browser and/or the Android operating system, and also be blocked from exclusive distribution contracts that had placed Google Search as the default on almost all devices and web browsers.
Instead, Mehta last week ordered Google to share (some) search data with its rivals to ensure competition in online search. Oh, and while Google can’t have “exclusive” search deals, it can still have paid search agreements.