Google’s Antitrust Loss Now Feels a Lot Like Winning

Something close to the best-case scenario emerged for Google on Tuesday when a federal judge outlined its punishments for running an illegal search monopoly. The company will not be forced to sell its Chrome browser or Android operating system. There will be no hampering of its artificial-intelligence efforts. It can even still shovel billions of dollars a year to Apple Inc. to help attract search traffic from iPhone users if it wants.

The ruling confirmed the fears of those who felt these antitrust proceedings, groundbreaking as they were, simply came too late. Judge Amit Mehta’s remedies are an attempt to level a playing field in a game that ended long ago. They force the Alphabet Inc. unit to refrain from certain exclusivity deals and requirements for preferential app placement among its device partners. Google must also make available limited search data to competitors. Sure, if competitors can use this newly available search data to their advantage, it might mean a single-digit percentage hit to Google’s market share, but the status quo will remain pretty much just that.