In a ruling that could reshape the internet’s backbone, a D.C. federal judge on Friday released the Google Search Final Antitrust Mandates, a comprehensive package of remedies largely mirroring the Justice Department’s vision for how to crack open Google’s long-entrenched search monopoly.
U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta’s 95-page decision resolves months of wrangling between the government and Google over the wording, teeth and timeline of the injunction he first signaled in September. What emerged is a blueprint meant to pry open one of the tech industry’s strongest fortresses — one the judge described as a process where “the devil is in the details.”
The Battlefront Google Tried to Close
One of the fiercest disputes centered on generative artificial intelligence, with Google insisting that GenAI products fell outside the original liability theory. Judge Mehta waved that argument away.
“Adopting Google’s proposal would be self-defeating,” he wrote, warning that Google cannot be allowed to “replay its illegal conduct with its GenAI products.”
The ruling cements GenAI squarely within the injunction, underscoring that its fast-growing integration into search makes it impossible to silo.
