Tinshui Yeung
Live page editor

Google and its investors have prepared for worse, but today's ruling has turned out to be a relief for them.

The judge has ruled that the tech giant does not have to sell Chrome and Android, so the company has avoided what could have led to a break-up.

Shares in the company have instantly risen by more than 6% - a sign that investors welcome the result.

But it's not all good news for Google. Part of the judge's decision means the tech giant must share its search data with competitors.

We're yet to hear directly from the company after the ruling was announced - but earlier, Google said it will file an appeal, so the ruling about sharing search data may not take effect straight away.

As we've brought you the main lines and reactions to today's ruling, we're bringing the live page to a close. You can read our news story here. Thank you for joining us.

This isn't the only case Google is facing.

Earlier this year, a US judge ruled the tech giant has got a monopoly in online advertising technology.

The US Department of Justice, along with 17 US states, took legal action against Google, saying the company was illegally dominating the technology that decides which adverts should be placed online and where.

Google said it will appeal against the decision.

We’ve got more details from the judge’s 230-page ruling.

Google won’t be allowed to enter into any exclusive distribution contracts for Google Search, Chrome, Google Assistant or the Gemini app.

This means phone makers will be free to preload or promote other search engines, browsers or AI assistants alongside Google’s.

Lily Jamali
North America Technology Correspondent, reporting from San Francisco

The general consensus on Wall Street is that Tuesday’s ruling from Judge Amit Mehta is good news for Big Tech.

“The regulator’s bark is bigger than the bite,” Deepwater Asset Management Managing Partner Gene Munster posts to X after the ruling is handed down.

Google shares are trading 8% higher on the decision that the company can keep Chrome, he notes, while Apple shares also benefits from the expectation that it can maintain a deal that makes Google’s search engine the default on its Safari browser.

It was revealed at trial that Google paid more than $26 billion (£20.5 billion) for such deals with Apple, Mozilla, and others in 2021.

Judge Mehta’s ruling “doesn’t seem to be as draconian as the market was expecting,” says Melissa Otto, Head of TMT Research at S&P Global Visible Alpha.

With Google Search expected to generate closer to $200 billion this fiscal year, and tens of billions of that expected to go to distribution partners, it’s a win-win for the major corporate players involved in the case, Otto says.

Image source, LightRocket/Getty Images

Google will not have to sell off its Android operating system, the judge has ruled.

The Android operating system powers most of the world’s smartphones - it’s used by 73.9% of mobile phones worldwide, compared to 25.71% for iOS, according to net analysis provider Statcounter.

Google has said that selling off parts of its operations - like Android - would mean they effectively stop working properly.

We're continuing to unpack the most important details of the judge's decision today.

Natalie Sherman
New York business reporter

Image source, Getty Images

If this ruling seems like a win for Google, it may have some of its biggest rivals to thank.

In the decision, judge Amit Mehta makes it clear he was hesitant to step in to an industry that's being rapidly reshaped by advances in artificial intelligence (AI), with firms like OpenAI putting Google on the defensive.

The rise of artificial intelligence "changed the course of this case", he writes in the ruling.

"Unlike the typical case where the court’s job is to resolve a dispute based on historic facts, here the court is asked to gaze into a crystal ball and look to the future. Not exactly a judge’s forte," he adds.

The stock of Google's parent company Alphabet has jumped by more than 6% since the judge's ruling.

At the end of today's trading, each share was worth about $212 (£158.3).

That has now climbed to more than $226.

Image source, Nasdaq

Though today's ruling is mostly good news for Google, part of US District Judge Amit Mehta's decision means the tech giant has to share its search data with competitors.

We're going through the rulings and will bring you more details soon.

Liv McMahon
Technology reporter

It’s been more than a year since US district Judge Amit Mehta ruled that Google had acted illegally to crush its competition and maintain a monopoly in online search - and more than five since charges of anti-competitive conduct were first filed by the US government and 11 states.

Delivered last August after a 10-week trial, the ruling served a major blow to Alphabet, Google’s parent company, presenting it with the greatest threat to its search empire to date.

Since then, Google and Department of Justice (DOJ) lawyers have proposed their own ideas of changes the tech giant should have to make to reduce its power in the search market - of which it has cornered about a 90% share.

Being broken up, as the DoJ has suggested, would be the worst possible outcome for Google.

The company has proposed less drastic solutions, such as limiting its revenue-sharing agreements with firms like Apple to make its search engine the default on their devices and browsers.

Image source, Reuters

Natalie Sherman
New York business reporter

At Alphabet's offices in California, executives must be breathing a sigh of relief.

Google - or its parent company Alphabet - has avoided the most severe remedies the judge was considering, which could have meant breaking up the company.

It's also free to keep making payments to partners such as Apple, to secure placement of its browser - another closely watched and contentious part of the case.

A US judge has ordered that Alphabet's Google will not have to sell Chrome, its massively popular web browser.

Google's dominance of online search has has been the subject of a five-year legal battle with the US government.

In August 2024, a judge ruled that Google had used unfair methods to establish a monopoly over the market, actively working to maintain a level of dominance to the extent it broke American law.

The case centred around Google's position as the default search engine on a range of products, both ones which it owns - Android and Chrome - and others like Apple.

Now, the court has ruled what the remedies to this monopoly decision should be.

Stick with us while we unpack what this landmark ruling means for the company and for those of us who its products.