Google Asks US Judge To Defer Order Forcing It To Share Data While It Appeals

Alphabet's Google asked a judge on Friday to postpone making the company share data with rivals while it challenges a ruling that the company holds an illegal monopoly in online search, according to court papers.

US District Judge Amit Mehta in Washington ruled in 2024 that the company used unlawful tactics to maintain its dominance in online search. Google will urge a federal appeals court to reverse that ruling, it said in court papers, on Friday. And Mehta went too far in trying to level the playing field by ordering the company to share its data with competitors, including generative artificial intelligence companies such as ChatGPT maker OpenAI, Google said.

If Google complies, it risks exposing trade secrets with no way to recover them if it wins on appeal, the company said, asking Mehta to pause that part of his ruling. Google did not seek to postpone other requirements, such as limiting contracts that let it preload apps, including its Gemini AI chatbot, to one year in duration.

"Although Google believes that these remedies are unwarranted and should never have been imposed, it is prepared to do everything short of turning over its data or providing syndicated results and ads while its appeal is pending," the company said.

Despite being found to hold multiple illegal monopolies, Google has so far come away largely unscathed in its long battle with US antitrust enforcers.

The US Department of Justice and the coalition of states that brought the case have until February 3 to decide whether they will appeal Mehta's ruling rejecting stronger remedies. The antitrust enforcers sought to make Google sell off its Chrome browser and cease multibillion-dollar payments to Apple and other companies that agree to preset Google as the default search engine on new devices.

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