Google won’t have to sell its Chrome browser, a judge in Washington said on Tuesday, handing a rare win to Big Tech in its battle with US antitrust enforcers, but ordering Google to share data with rivals to open up competition in online search.

Google parent Alphabet’s shares were up 7.2 per cent in extended trading on Tuesday as investors cheered the judge’s ruling, which also allows Google to keep making lucrative payments to Apple that antitrust enforcers said froze out search rivals. Apple shares rose 3pc.

US District Judge Amit Mehta also ruled Google could keep its Android operating system, which, together with Chrome, helps drive Google’s market-dominating online advertising business.

The ruling results from a five-year legal battle between one of the world’s most profitable companies and the US, where antitrust regulators and lawmakers have long questioned Big Tech’s market domination. Mehta ruled last year that Google holds an illegal monopoly in online search and related advertising.

But the judge approached the job of imposing remedies on Google with “humility,” he wrote, pointing to competition created by artificial........

© Dawn Business