Judge says tech giant can keep world’s most popular browser in ongoing battle over firm being ruled monopoly

Google will not be forced to sell its Chrome browser, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday in the tech giant’s ongoing legal battle over being ruled a monopoly last year.

The company will be barred from certain exclusive deals with device makers and must share data from its search engine with competitors, the judge ruled.

Judge Amit Mehta’s ruling follows months of speculation surrounding what penalties Google would face as a result of his decision last year that the company violated antitrust laws as it built what he called an online search monopoly. The ruling, one of the most significant antitrust cases in decades, resulted in an additional hearing in April to determine what actions the government should take as a remedy.