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Google has not been banned from paying to be the default search engine. In a final judgment entered on December 5, 2025, U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta barred covered U.S. agreements from lasting more than one year when they involve payments or other consideration tied to distributing, preloading, placing, displaying, licensing, or assigning access to Google Search, Chrome, Google Assistant, or Google generative-AI products.
The order gives Apple, browser developers, device manufacturers, and wireless carriers recurring opportunities to reconsider Google’s position and requires covered arrangements to leave room for promoting rival search and generative-AI services. It does not require Apple or any other partner to choose a competitor.
What Judge Mehta ordered
The judgment is part of the U.S. Department of Justice and states’ antitrust case against Google. Judge Mehta previously found that Google unlawfully maintained monopolies in general-search services and general-search text advertising under Section 2 of the Sherman Act.
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The operative rules cover agreements involving Google Search, Chrome, Google Assistant, and Google GenAI products in the United States. In broad terms, Google may not maintain a covered arrangement for more than one year when the agreement conditions payments, licensing, or other consideration on the distribution or placement of those products.
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The judgment also prohibits Google from using certain contractual conditions to restrict competition. Among other restrictions, Google may not:
- Condition Google Play or other Google-app licensing on a device maker distributing or placing Google Search, Chrome, Assistant, or a Google GenAI product.
- Condition payments or licensing on a device manufacturer or wireless carrier refusing to develop, distribute, preload, place, display, sell, or license a rival search, browser, or GenAI product.
- Tie payment for placing one Google product or access point to the placement of another Google product or access point.
The precise scope depends on the judgment’s definitions and exceptions. The important qualification is that these are restrictions on covered agreements, not every contract Google has with every third party.
The one-year rule does not force an annual switch
A covered default agreement must expire after no more than one year. That creates a recurring decision point, but it is not a mandatory annual auction and does not guarantee that a rival will win.
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| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Can Google still be the default? | Yes, if the arrangement complies with the judgment. |
| Must Apple switch away from Google? | No. |
| Must Google immediately stop paying Apple? | Not necessarily. The order regulates the structure and duration of covered agreements. |
| Does a rival automatically become the default? | No. A partner may choose Google again or select another provider. |
| Does the order guarantee a consumer choice screen? | No. The judgment does not necessarily require one. |
The court chose a clear termination rule because partners need to know when an agreement ends, competitors need predictable opportunities to compete, and a bright-line rule is easier to administer. In practice, Google can still negotiate a new agreement after the old one expires, and a partner can still renew with Google.
The likely change is not an automatic change in the search engine shown to users. It is a change in bargaining power: partners should have more frequent opportunities to seek competing offers, promote alternatives, or negotiate different arrangements for different products and access points.
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Read the court’s memorandum opinion.
What changes for Apple?
The Apple provisions are broader than a generic reference to an “Apple default.” They expressly address Google Search access points involving:
- Safari;
- Siri;
- Spotlight; and
- privacy modes.
A permitted default-search arrangement with Apple must expire after one year and must expressly allow Apple to promote third-party general-search and generative-AI products. The judgment also restricts Google from tying payment for Google Search placement at one access point to placement at another access point or on another device.
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That does not mean Apple must abandon Google Search, that Google’s payments immediately end, or that iPhone users will automatically see a different search engine. Apple can choose Google again under a compliant agreement. The legal change is that a covered relationship cannot be locked in indefinitely and must preserve greater freedom to promote alternatives.
What changes for Android phones and carriers?
The Android impact is more complicated than “Google can no longer be the default.” Google Search may still be available or preloaded, and Google may still compete to remain the default. But the judgment limits how Google can use licensing and payments to secure that position.
In particular, Google cannot condition Google Play or other Google-app licensing on a device manufacturer distributing or placing specified Google products. It also cannot condition payments or licensing on a manufacturer or wireless carrier declining to support rival search, browser, or generative-AI products.
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This separates several issues that are often treated as one:
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- Preloading: Preloading is not categorically prohibited, but covered contractual conditions governing it are restricted.
- Default status: A default arrangement remains possible, subject to the judgment’s term and anti-conditioning rules.
- Google Play licensing: Google cannot use licensing conditions to force placement or distribution of the specified products.
- Rival products: Manufacturers and carriers must retain greater freedom to distribute or promote competing search, browser, and GenAI products.
The practical outcome will depend on what manufacturers, carriers, and competing providers do with that additional flexibility. The judgment does not guarantee that a rival will obtain a prominent position on any particular phone.
What changes for Firefox and other browsers?
Browser agreements matter because a browser can determine the search engine shown at several access points. The judgment requires a covered default agreement with a browser developer to expire after one year and expressly permit promotion of third-party general-search and generative-AI products.
It also bars Google from conditioning payment for setting Google Search as the default at one browser access point on setting it at another access point or on another device. That could give browser developers more room to:
- use different defaults across operating-system versions;
- treat ordinary browsing and privacy modes differently;
- promote rival search or GenAI services;
- negotiate with multiple providers; and
- seek new terms without giving up every Google-related payment.
Those possibilities are not guarantees. A browser developer may still decide that Google offers the strongest combination of payment, product quality, infrastructure, advertising economics, and user familiarity. The order creates an opportunity to negotiate; it does not predetermine the result.
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The judgment is not limited to traditional web search. It identifies Google GenAI products and third-party generative-AI products as well.
That matters because defaults can influence emerging AI assistants and answer engines in much the same way they influence search. If a device maker, browser, or platform partner controls a prominent entry point, an agreement affecting that entry point could shape which AI service users encounter first.
The order therefore addresses both established search distribution and the possibility that similar contractual advantages could extend into a developing AI market. It does not declare that a particular AI service must be offered or selected as a default.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Other parts of the remedy package
The one-year contract rule is only one part of the final judgment. The broader remedy also seeks to reduce the technical and data advantages that make it difficult for smaller search providers to compete.
Key provisions include:
- Access for qualified competitors to specified Google web-search-index data at marginal cost.
- Access to certain user-side data, subject to privacy and security safeguards.
- A search-syndication license for qualified competitors.
- Real-time API access to specified search-result components.
- A five-year search-syndication license term.
Use of Google syndication by qualified competitors is initially capped at 40% of their annual U.S. queries and is designed to decline over five years. The purpose is to provide an initial bridge while encouraging competitors to develop more independent search capabilities.
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These provisions address a different problem from default placement. The default rules affect distribution: how prominently and conveniently a service reaches users. Data and syndication provisions address the quality and scale gap that can make it difficult for a smaller provider to compete even when it receives access to a distribution channel.
The final judgment also includes continuing administration and technical oversight. Existing third-party search-syndication agreements are not automatically rewritten by the one-year default rule; the judgment preserves them subject to its specified qualification pathway.
What the order does not do
- It does not require Google to sell Chrome.
- It does not automatically end Google’s relationship with Apple.
- It does not require Apple, Mozilla, carriers, or device manufacturers to select a rival.
- It does not guarantee a consumer choice screen.
- It does not make rival search engines equal to Google in index size, infrastructure, advertising, or AI capabilities.
- It does not necessarily apply to every agreement Google has with every third party.
- It is not a worldwide rule. The cited provisions are framed around U.S. agreements, devices, browser access points, and products.
Timeline of the case
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| October 20, 2020 | The Justice Department filed its complaint. |
| August 5, 2024 | The court entered findings of fact and conclusions of law finding Google liable. |
| September 2, 2025 | The court entered additional remedies findings. |
| December 5, 2025 | Judge Mehta entered the final judgment. |
| February 2026 | The main judgment became effective 60 days after entry, subject to the order’s effective-date provision. |
| August 2026 | Compliance proceedings, technical-committee work, status reporting, and appellate filings remained active. |
The judgment is scheduled to expire six years after its effective date unless it is extended or terminated earlier. The technical-committee provisions took effect immediately.
Current status as of August 2026
The final judgment has been entered, but the case is not simply over. The DOJ’s case page lists 2026 compliance filings, technical-committee appointments, status reports, and appellate filings.
A joint status report filed August 14, 2026, proposed another status report for August 28, 2026. That shows that implementation questions remain active. It does not, by itself, mean that any part of the remedy has been stayed or changed.
See the DOJ case page and docket documents.
What to watch next
- Whether Apple, Mozilla, and other browser developers seek competing bids or restructure defaults by access point.
- Whether rival search and AI providers can offer technically credible products and financially attractive terms.
- How device manufacturers and carriers use their added freedom to distribute competing services.
- Whether Google challenges implementation details or seeks changes through appellate proceedings.
- Whether compliance procedures or technical-committee decisions alter how the remedies operate.
- Whether annual contract expiration changes consumer defaults or primarily changes private negotiations between Google and its partners.
The central trade-off is straightforward. Annual expiration may create recurring opportunities for competitors and prevent long-term contractual lock-in. But Google may still win those decisions because of user familiarity, product quality, payments, advertising economics, infrastructure, and integration across its services.
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