3 September 2025
If you are covering the outcome of the Department of Justice’s lawsuit against Google, please find below a comment from Ben Barringer, head of technology research at Quilter Cheviot, about the implications and what it means going forward.
“Google can confidently declare victory over the Department of Justice as it secured a decisive win in its antitrust battle. There were genuine fears that Google would need to divest from its Chrome browser, with some tech giants sniffing around of late. However, yesterday’s ruling has meant Chrome can be kept in Google’s hands and that payments to Apple can continue, in effect meaning Chrome remains the default browser for those devices. Business as usual can thus continue.
“The judge did rule that Google must share data with competitors, meaning that others can gain crucial insights strengthen their own digital advertising businesses. This will leave some risk on the table for Google, but it is well established enough that it shouldn’t pose a threat, at least in the short-term. The bigger risk in the long-term, and perhaps why the judge felt there was not a competitive imbalance, is the impact of generative AI and how these models are swiftly replacing traditional search as we know it. Google is trying to adapt quickly to the new world of AI and is playing catch up to some extent, but the likes of Chat GPT have got a strong foothold and are unlikely to go away. As such, Google will need to double down on its AI investment in order to remain the leader for search as it is.
“While this judgement is great news for Google, and being cheered by investors, it is far from the end of the saga. The next step will likely be the Supreme Court and this long-drawn out affair will continue. However, this will have been taken into account by the judge and as such we do not expect the Supreme Court to impose harsher sanctions on Google than have already been placed upon them.
“The other point to note is that this decision is also great news for Apple. The payments from Google were a huge revenue generator for the tech giant and the fact these can continue will be a relief in what has been a turbulent year. Big tech is likely to constantly be in the crosshairs of governments and regulators as a result of their size, so victories like this will be welcomed by investors and helps to remove a big part of the risk that was weighing on the share prices of these companies.”
