Google not required to sell Chrome, in US antitrust victory

Google Dodges Chrome Break-Up: What a US Judge’s Ruling Means for Malta’s €1.5 Billion Digital Bet

By Luke Caruana | Hot Malta

Valletta’s cafés were buzzing yesterday with more than just talk of festa fireworks and summer rents. Entrepreneurs, lawyers and start-up founders huddled over cortados, dissecting a decision handed down 8,000 kilometres away in a Washington courtroom: a US federal judge has ruled that Google will not be forced to sell its Chrome browser, handing the Alphabet giant a landmark antitrust victory.

While the verdict sounds like Silicon Valley insider baseball, it carries direct ripples for Malta’s rapidly expanding digital economy. From iGaming giants in St Julian’s to blockchain start-ups in Gozo’s tech incubators, the island has staked roughly €1.5 billion—equal to 10 % of GDP—on an open, friction-free internet dominated by Google Search, Chrome and Android. A forced divestiture could have jacked up compliance costs and fragmented the browser market, forcing Maltese operators to re-engineer payment gateways and user-tracking systems. Monday’s ruling removes that Sword of Damocles.

The case dates back to 2023, when the US Department of Justice argued Google acted as an “illegal monopoly” by tying Chrome’s default search settings to lucrative advertising deals. Judge Amit Mehta stopped short of the nuclear remedy—divestiture—settling instead on behavioural tweaks such as greater transparency in search-ranking auctions. For Malta’s 600-plus licensed gaming companies, most of which rely on Chrome for 70 % of desktop traffic, the status quo is a sigh of relief. “Any disruption would have cascaded into higher customer-acquisition costs,” says Maria Spiteri, COO of local affiliate network NexusGaming. “We can now focus on Euro 2024 campaigns rather than rebuilding our ad tech stack.”

Yet the cultural angle matters just as much as the commercial one. Walk into any Maltese secondary school and Chromebooks outnumber textbooks. The national tablet scheme, launched in 2021, distributes Android devices built around Google Classroom. Had Chrome been spun off, educators feared patchy security updates and compatibility snags. “Our syllabi are designed around Google Workspace,” explains Antonella Vella, head of digital learning at St Aloysius College. “Continuity means teachers can keep pushing coding projects instead of troubleshooting new browsers.”

Even village band clubs felt the tremor. Many rely on YouTube—owned by Google—for streaming festa marches and fundraising concerts. A splintered Google ecosystem could have complicated monetisation, threatening the €2 million annual injection that online donations provide to Malta’s 85 brass bands. “We stream the Marċ tal-Brijju live to Melbourne diaspora every August,” notes Sliema bandmaster Joseph Chetcuti. “Stable tech equals stable income.”

Opposition politicians warned against complacency. “We must diversify our digital dependencies,” argued Labour MP Randolph Debono in Parliament yesterday, proposing incentives for Firefox and Safari adoption across public services. Meanwhile, the Malta Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority announced it will monitor whether Google’s tweaked auction rules lower ad prices for local SMEs. “The ruling is foreign, but the impact is national,” said director general Jesmond Saliba.

For ordinary Maltese, the takeaway is simpler: the blue, red, yellow and green circle on their home screens isn’t going anywhere. Atħ-ħanut tal-laptop in Hamrun, owner Etienne Bezzina reported a rush of customers seeking Chromebook repairs rather than replacements. “People feared Chrome would vanish,” he laughed, brandishing a stack of RAM upgrades. “Now they just want faster tabs for Netflix.”

The long game, however, remains uncertain. Google still faces similar probes in Brussels, and Malta’s Digital Innovation Authority is drafting contingency plans should EU regulators demand browser unbundling. Until then, the island’s entrepreneurs can toast the American decision with a cold Cisk, knowing their pixels—and profits—are safe.

Conclusion: Monday’s US verdict is more than a Silicon Valley headline; it is a quiet victory for Malta’s digital aspirations. By keeping Chrome intact, the ruling safeguards jobs, classrooms and village traditions alike, proving that even the smallest EU state is tethered to the fate of tech titans oceans away.