Google loses massive antitrust lawsuit over its search dominance
A federal judge found on Monday that Google had broken US antitrust law with its search business. This decision dealt the tech giant a stunning legal setback that could upend decades of supremacy and change how millions of Americans obtain information online.
US district Judge Amit Mehta on Monday said, “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,” “It has violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act.”
What Judge Said: source:nytimes.com
The decision by the US District Court for the District of Columbia is a stunning indictment of the biggest and most well-known firm on Google. The company has spent tens of billions of dollars on exclusive deals to become the world leader in search engine defaults for mobile devices and online browsers.
The US government claims that these contracts have given it the leverage to stave off prospective rivals such as DuckDuckGo and Microsoft’s Bing. The Trump administration was the target of the rather historic complaint.
Because of these agreements, Google is typically the quickest and easiest platform for consumers to utilize when looking for information. This has helped Google’s enormous internet advertising industry.
Although the court did not conclude that Google monopolizes search ads, the opinion’s general conclusions mark the first significant ruling in a series of competition lawsuits against Big Tech that have been spearheaded by the US government. Particularly, this case has been called the largest tech antitrust lawsuit since the US government and Microsoft engaged in a protracted antitrust battle at the beginning of the new millennium.
In an election year, the case’s conclusion represents a major victory for the Justice Department, as former President Donald Trump would almost surely adopt a more hands-off, deregulatory stance toward technology if he were to win a second term in office. President Joe Biden has appointed Lina Khan to head the Federal Trade Commission.
The case U.S. et al. v. Google, which lasted for years and culminated in a 10-week trial last year, comes to an end with this opinion. In 2020, the Department of Justice and a consortium of attorneys general from 38 states and territories, headed by Colorado and Nebraska, brought comparable but distinct antitrust lawsuits against Google, contending that the company unjustly excluded prospective competitors in search, such as Bing and DuckDuckGo. Google refuted the Department of Justice’s assessment that it held a 90% market share in searches.
Big tech has not been fond of Khan’s track record of going after them, especially when it comes to antitrust laws. This case might establish a standard for the several other antitrust cases that are now being heard in court. Apple is being sued by the DOJ for making it impossible for customers to move away from the iPhone.
