A US federal judge handed tech giant, Google, a huge defeat on Monday, saying it has violated US antitrust law with its search business. The ruling has the potential to change how millions of people get information online, as well as end its decades of dominance. “After having carefully considered and weighed the witness testimony and evidence, the court reaches the following conclusion: Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly,” US District Judge Amit Mehta wrote in Monday’s opinion. “It has violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act.” “The decision by the US District Court for the District of Columbia is a stunning rebuke of Google’s oldest and most important business,” reports CNN, adding, “the company has spent tens of billions of dollars on exclusive contracts to secure a dominant position as the world’s default search provider on smartphones and web browsers.” The contracts were of such a scale as to allow Google to stymie rivals, including Microsoft’s Bing and DuckDuckGo, the US government alleged in an antitrust lawsuit filed during the Trump administration. Mehta said in his ruling Google’s powerful position led to anticompetitive behavior "that must be stopped." The judge cited Google’s exclusive deals with Apple and other key players in the mobile world were anticompetitive, adding Google charged high prices in search advertising, reflecting its monopoly power. “Those contracts have long meant that when users want to find information, Google is generally the easiest and quickest platform to go to, which in turn has fueled Google’s massive online advertising business,” says CNN. The court did not rule Google has a monopoly in search ads, but its opinion is the first major decision to be made in a series of competition lawsuits by the US government that single out Big Tech companies. Google’s case has been described as the biggest tech antitrust case since the US government’s antitrust showdown with Microsoft. CNN says neither Google nor the Department of Justice immediately responded to its request for comment, adding the case is different than an antitrust suit levelled by the Biden administration against Google in 2023 targetting the company’s advertising technology business, which is set to go to trial in September. Mehta’s ruling on Monday is the second high-profile antitrust defeat for the search giant, after a federal jury in California said in December it runs an illegal monopoly with its proprietary app store. That court is in the deliberation stage of possible remedies. Expectations are Mehta’s decision will start separate proceedings to assess the penalties Google, which is likely to file an appeal, will face. “But the ruling could ultimately upend how Google makes its search engine available to users, by impacting its ability to make the pricey deals with device makers and online service providers that were at the heart of the case,” reports CNN. In an emailed statement, Emarketer senior analyst Evelyn Mitchell-Wolf said, “If the court takes away Google’s agreements that make it the default search engine on so many devices it could hurt the company’s core product at an extremely pivotal moment.” “Its ubiquity is its biggest strength, especially as competition heats up among AI-powered search alternatives,” Mitchell-Wolf said, referring to the growing threat to Google’s search dominance posed by artificial intelligence search tools, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT. The possibility there could be a break up of Google has not been ruled out by US antitrust officials, who warn Google’s behavior could threaten future innovation or the rise of a Google successor. “The ruling could also be a bellwether for other, major tech antitrust cases that are moving through the courts, including against Apple and Amazon,” reports CNN, adding both have called the antitrust lawsuits filed against them “wrong on the facts and the law.”
A US federal judge handed tech giant, Google, a huge defeat on Monday, saying it has violated US antitrust law with its search business. The ruling has the potential to change how millions of people get information online, as well as end its decades of dominance. “After having carefully considered and weighed the witness testimony and evidence, the court reaches the following conclusion: Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly,” US District Judge Amit Mehta wrote in Monday’s opinion. “It has violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act.” “The decision by the US District Court for the District of Columbia is a stunning rebuke of Google’s oldest and most important business,” reports CNN, adding, “the company has spent tens of billions of dollars on exclusive contracts to secure a dominant position as the world’s default search provider on smartphones and web browsers.” The contracts were of such a scale as to allow Google to stymie rivals, including Microsoft’s Bing and DuckDuckGo, the US government alleged in an antitrust lawsuit filed during the Trump administration. Mehta said in his ruling Google’s powerful position led to anticompetitive behavior "that must be stopped." The judge cited Google’s exclusive deals with Apple and other key players in the mobile world were anticompetitive, adding Google charged high prices in search advertising, reflecting its monopoly power. “Those contracts have long meant that when users want to find information, Google is generally the easiest and quickest platform to go to, which in turn has fueled Google’s massive online advertising business,” says CNN. The court did not rule Google has a monopoly in search ads, but its opinion is the first major decision to be made in a series of competition lawsuits by the US government that single out Big Tech companies. Google’s case has been described as the biggest tech antitrust case since the US government’s antitrust showdown with Microsoft. CNN says neither Google nor the Department of Justice immediately responded to its request for comment, adding the case is different than an antitrust suit levelled by the Biden administration against Google in 2023 targetting the company’s advertising technology business, which is set to go to trial in September. Mehta’s ruling on Monday is the second high-profile antitrust defeat for the search giant, after a federal jury in California said in December it runs an illegal monopoly with its proprietary app store. That court is in the deliberation stage of possible remedies. Expectations are Mehta’s decision will start separate proceedings to assess the penalties Google, which is likely to file an appeal, will face. “But the ruling could ultimately upend how Google makes its search engine available to users, by impacting its ability to make the pricey deals with device makers and online service providers that were at the heart of the case,” reports CNN. In an emailed statement, Emarketer senior analyst Evelyn Mitchell-Wolf said, “If the court takes away Google’s agreements that make it the default search engine on so many devices it could hurt the company’s core product at an extremely pivotal moment.” “Its ubiquity is its biggest strength, especially as competition heats up among AI-powered search alternatives,” Mitchell-Wolf said, referring to the growing threat to Google’s search dominance posed by artificial intelligence search tools, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT. The possibility there could be a break up of Google has not been ruled out by US antitrust officials, who warn Google’s behavior could threaten future innovation or the rise of a Google successor. “The ruling could also be a bellwether for other, major tech antitrust cases that are moving through the courts, including against Apple and Amazon,” reports CNN, adding both have called the antitrust lawsuits filed against them “wrong on the facts and the law.”
