Mozilla says stricter antitrust penalties could force it out of the browser market. The company relies on Google payments for Firefox’s search distribution. A court decision may reshape browser competition.
A new warning from Mozilla: the company says it may be forced to leave the browser and browser engine markets if it loses the ability to receive payments from Google for distributing its search engine. This development comes as federal and state antitrust regulators push for tougher restrictions on Google’s search distribution deals, a move that could have ripple effects for independent browser makers and the broader search ecosystem.
Mozilla’s concerns were detailed in a friend-of-the-court brief filed with the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. The company argued that banning payments from Google would not only threaten its own business model but also reduce competition in the browser market. Mozilla said such a ban could eliminate a key distributor in the general search engine market, deprive users of a high-quality browser with strong privacy and security features, and further consolidate power among major tech companies.
The legal dispute began in 2020, when the Department of Justice and several states accused Google of violating antitrust laws by securing default search engine status on Apple’s Safari, Mozilla’s Firefox, and Android devices. In 2024, U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta ruled that Google unlawfully maintained monopolies in general search services and search text ads. By September 2025, Mehta ordered Google to stop entering exclusive distribution contracts for Google Search, Chrome, Google Assistant, and the Gemini app for six years. However, the order allowed Google to continue paying Apple, Mozilla, and other distributors for search placement, citing the potential harm a payment ban could cause to these companies and the markets they serve.
Recently, antitrust enforcers asked the appellate court to overturn the part of Mehta’s order that permits these payments. Mozilla responded by stating that the judge’s decision was supported by evidence, including a study showing its revenue would drop sharply if it had to replace Google with Bing as Firefox’s default search engine. Mozilla’s brief emphasized that it is not siding with either party on the broader appeal but is focused on the payment issue’s direct impact on its business and the browser market.
Google is expected to submit new arguments to the appellate court next month. The outcome could reshape how browsers and search engines are distributed and monetized, with significant implications for publishers, content creators, and digital media businesses that depend on browser-driven traffic. For context, similar tensions over platform payments and content distribution have surfaced in other areas of digital media, such as when UK publishers moved to charge AI companies for content scraping, highlighting the ongoing struggle for fair compensation and market access.
