A federal judge on Monday ruled that Google is an illegal monopoly that violated U.S. antitrust laws to establish, and then strengthen, a stranglehold on the search and advertising markets.
“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,” Judge Amit P. Mehta, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, wrote in his ruling. Mehta was appointed by President Barack Obama to the seat in 2014.
Google also faces a trial later this year against a separate case brought against its advertising technology business by Gannett, the U.S. newspaper publisher. In December, Google also lost a case brought by Epic Games that alleged its Google Play store was an illegal monopoly. Google agreed to a $700 million settlement about a week after the verdict.
But Mehta’s ruling is also just the beginning. It is sure to be appealed, with a date before the Supreme Court also likely.
If it is upheld, it only establishes Google’s liability. Financial penalties, or orders to break up into smaller companies, would be resolved after a laborious process with U.S. regulators, which would also be challenged throughout by Google.
What was the U.S. case against Google about?
Over a 10-week trial last fall, prosecutors keyed on Google’s practice of paying other companies, such as mobile device giants Apple and Samsung, to have its search set as the default option on their market-dominating wares.
Mehta cited this in his ruling, arguing the only market players capable of competing with Google would be a firm with capital enough to offer bigger payments, while also developing an industry-leading search engine.
“If that’s what it takes for somebody to dislodge Google as the default search engine, wouldn’t the folks that wrote the Sherman Act be concerned about it?”
This is a major victory for the Justice Department, and the first in a raft of regulatory cases brought against the likes of Amazon, Apple, and Meta within the past four years.
Image via Ideogram
