U.S. Judge Declares Google’s Online Search Monopoly Illegal
Alphabet’s Google broke the law through monopolistic behavior in online search and related advertising, a federal judge ruled on Monday. This marks the first victory for U.S. antitrust authorities, who have filed multiple lawsuits challenging Big Tech’s market dominance.
The decision is a significant win for the U.S. Justice Department, which sued the search engine giant for controlling about 90% of the online search market and 95% of searches on smartphones.
“The court reaches the following conclusion: Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly,” wrote U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta.
This ruling against Google sets the stage for a second trial to determine potential remedies, such as breaking up the company or requiring it to stop paying smartphone makers billions of dollars annually to set Google as the default search engine on new phones.
Ultimately, Google will have the opportunity to appeal the court’s rulings to the U.S. District Court of Appeal for the D.C. Circuit.
Shares of Google parent Alphabet fell 4.3% on Monday amid a broad decline in tech shares.
Mehta noted that Google paid $26.3 billion in 2021 alone to ensure its search engine remained the default on smartphones and browsers, thereby maintaining its dominant market share.
He added, “Google, of course, recognizes that losing defaults would dramatically impact its bottom line. For instance, Google has projected that losing the Safari default would result in a significant drop in queries and billions of dollars in lost revenues.”
This ruling is the first major decision in a series of cases challenging alleged monopolies in Big Tech.
In the past four years, federal antitrust regulators have also sued Meta Platforms, Amazon.com, and Apple Inc., claiming these companies have illegally maintained monopolies. Another case against Google over its advertising technology is scheduled to go to trial in September.
When the Google search case was filed in 2020, it marked the first time in a generation that the U.S. government accused a major corporation of an illegal monopoly. Microsoft settled with the Justice Department in 2004 over claims it forced its Internet Explorer web browser on Windows user.
