"Google will not be barred from making payments or offering other consideration to distribution partners for preloading or placement of Google Search, Chrome, or its GenAI products," Judge Amit Mehta wrote in his decision.

"Cutting off payments from Google almost certainly will impose substantial — in some cases, crippling — downstream harms to distribution partners, related markets, and consumers, which counsels against a broad payment ban," the decision continued.

The landmark case focused on Google's dominance of the general search market, Google's violations of the Sherman Act and the barriers to entry that the search engine erected.

However, the judge said that Google will be barred from entering or maintaining "any exclusive contract" related to preloading its search engine or key apps on devices, specifying that Google can't bundle its Android services with Google search or condition revenue share agreements on the acceptance of other Google apps or services.