Google faces being forced to share its search index and user data, in a settlement in a long running battle about its monopoly of internet search.

Google escaped a dire judgment in September when US District Judge Amit Mehta rejected the US Justice Department argument that Google needed to sell Chrome and Android to address its monopoly in the internet search market.

Judge Mehta began laying out the conditions under which Google could be let off the hook.

In order to avoid a corporate break-up, Google had to agree to sell its search index and user data to competitors, along with search and search text advertising syndication services.

The Pasadena-based Courthouse News Service, which covered the case, said Judge Mehta said it was necessary to “deny the defendant the fruits of its statutory violation” by sharing its search index and user data.

The judge said the sharing of data should be subject to licensing around agreeing to not share or sell the data. But he said competitors could ask a technical committee for an exemption from that requirement.

The Courthouse News Service report said Judge Mehta rejected Google requests to have the power to veto syndication terms and to force competitors to display search results using the same format as Google’s.

Judge Mehta said qualified competitors would find it “an unlikely desire” to be a Google clone, the court report said.

A large gap persisted between Google and the US Department of Justice when the parties met again in early October.

The case between Google and the US Department of Justice has moved into the enforcement phase.