Judge Mehta's April 2026 remedy order bans Google default payments; Apple, Samsung, and Mozilla must deploy choice screens as compliance monitoring begins in September 2026.
The prohibition on Google paying device makers, browsers, and carriers to install its search engine as the default took effect in June 2026, following the final remedy order issued by U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta in April 2026 [1]. Apple, Samsung, and Mozilla are now required to present users with choice screens, giving them the ability to select a default search engine at the point of device setup or browser launch [1]. The compliance monitoring regime is scheduled to begin in September 2026 [1].
The remedy order flows from United States v. Google LLC, the Department of Justice's landmark search-monopoly case litigated before the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia [1]. Judge Mehta presided over a trial that concluded with a liability finding against Google, after which the proceedings moved to the remedy phase, where the DOJ Antitrust Division and Google's legal team contested the scope of appropriate relief [1]. The case drew on arguments that Google's exclusive default agreements with Apple and other distribution partners illegally foreclosed rivals from reaching users at scale [1].
The default-ban remedy carries structural weight that extends well beyond the immediate parties. Antitrust practitioners have drawn comparisons to the browser-ballot remedy imposed on Microsoft in European proceedings, and the restriction directly dismantles a distribution model that Google used to secure roughly 90 percent of U.S. search queries through default placement rather than on-the-merits competition [1]. By severing the revenue channel that made those agreements attractive to partners such as Apple, the order forces each affected company to rebuild its distribution strategy around affirmative user choice rather than pre-installation lock-in [1].
Structural remedies, including a potential forced divestiture of Google's Chrome browser, remain under further judicial review and have not been imposed [1]. That unresolved question means the current remedy represents only one layer of potential relief, and the record before Judge Mehta remains open to additional proceedings on whether behavioral restrictions alone are sufficient to restore competitive conditions in the search market [1]. Counsel advising platform companies, browser developers, and device manufacturers should treat the September 2026 compliance-monitoring start date as the operative deadline for audit-ready documentation of choice-screen implementation [1].