A judge ruled on Monday that Google has violated antitrust law in the US by illegally squashing competition and stifling innovation.
The ruling found that Google had paid $26.3bn in 2021 to ensure its search engine is the default on smartphones and browsers, to maintain its dominant market share.
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US District Judge Amit Mehta wrote in his 277-page ruling: “The court reaches the following conclusion: Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly.”
The ruling comes after the 10-week trial which took place last year including testimony from senior leaders at Google, Microsoft and Apple.
Laura Petrone, Principal Analyst at research and analysis company GlobalData said: “This decision sets an important precedent for US judges. Unlike the EU, the US doesn’t have regulations targeting digital monopolies. Decisions like this one show that traditional antitrust rules can and will be applied to Big Tech’s anticompetitive behaviour.”
“The message for Big Tech is clear: you cannot use your dominant position in a digital market to gain an unfair advantage. EU regulators are also stepping up efforts to enforce the Digital Market Act, the EU’s flagship legislation to prevent digital monopolies, with charges against Microsoft and Apple.”
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By GlobalDataClosing arguments took place in May this year in the first of several cases filed by the US Government accusing Big Tech of holding monopolies.
The case was filed by the Trump administration and is the first of four similar cases filed against tech giants Amazon and Meta, as well as a further case filed by President Biden’s administration against Google.
All of which deal with antitrust laws.
Google controls around 90% of the market for online search queries with a 95% share on mobile devices – evidence, the ruling claims of its monopoly.
Kent Walker, Google’s president of global affairs, said the company intends to appeal Mehta’s findings.
He said: “This decision recognises that Google offers the best search engine but concludes that we shouldn’t be allowed to make it easily available.”
Appeals after this ruling could be made to the US Court of Appeals, the District of Columbia Circuit and the Supreme Court leading to a lengthy ‘remedy’ phase.
This case is a victory for antitrust enforcers at the US Justice Department who filed the case almost four years ago and have since been escalating efforts to regulate Big Tech.
While this could signify a sizeable shift in the online search market the ruling in the federal court did not state what penalties Google will face for violating antitrust law, leaving open questions about the future of the company and parent company Alphabet.
