US Court Declares Google a Monopolist in Online Search

• A US judge ruled that Google illegally maintained its monopoly in online search and advertising, a significant blow to its parent company, Alphabet.
• The decision followed a lawsuit by the US Department of Justice, which accused Google of paying billions to be the default search engine on various platforms, thus stifling competition.
• Google plans to appeal the ruling, while US Attorney General Merrick Garland praised it as a historic win for antitrust enforcement, with potential future penalties including company break-up.

An US judge has declared that Google acted illegally to crush the competition while maintaining its monopoly over web-based search and associated advertising. The historic ruling of Monday dealt a serious loss for Alphabet, the parent company of Google which could alter how big tech companies conduct their business.

The US Department of Justice sued Google in the year 2020 for its control over 90% of the internet market for search. This is only one of the many lawsuits that have been filed against tech giants in the context of US antitrust agencies seeking to boost competition within the field.

The case has been described as the possibility of a serious threat for Google as well as its owners as well as Alphabet, this decision emphasizes the dominance of Google on  both the online and search advertising industry. It is not clear what consequences Google or Alphabet could be facing as a result of this decision. Other remedies or fines will be decided at the future hearing. The government has requested “structural relief,” which might, theoretically result in the dissolution of the firm.

US District Judge Amit Mehta stated that Google has paid billions of dollars in order to be Google’s default choice for searching used on phones and on browsers. “Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly,” Judge Mehta said in his 277 pages.

Alphabet will appeal the decision. “This decision recognises that Google offers the best search engine, but concludes that we shouldn’t be allowed to make it easily available,” Alphabet said in an announcement.

US Attorney General Merrick Garland has praised the decision as an “historic win for the American people.” Garland emphasized that “No company – no matter how large or influential – is above the law. The Justice Department will continue to vigorously enforce our antitrust laws.”

Federal antitrust regulators also have ongoing litigations involving Big Tech companies, including Meta Platforms, which owns Facebook, Amazon.com, and Apple Inc., accusing the companies of operating monopolies in violation of law.

This decision follows an eight-week trial that lasted for 10 weeks in Washington DC, where prosecutors were accused of Google of paying millions of dollars each year to Apple, Samsung, Mozilla as well as others, in order to become a default Google search engine for all different platforms. The US claimed that Google generally pays over 10 billion per year for the privilege of having access to an ongoing flow of data from users that allows it to maintain its position in the market. The prosecution argued that this method hinders other businesses from having the chance or resources necessary to effectively compete. “The best testimony for that, for the importance of defaults, is Google’s cheque book,” claimed Department of Justice lawyer Kenneth Dintzer at the time of the trial.

Google’s search engine is a major source of profits for the company earning billions of dollars mostly due to the advertisements that appear in its search results. Google’s lawyers have defended the firm in court, claiming that people are drawn by their search engine since they feel it is useful, and Google invests in making it more beneficial for the users. “Google is winning because it’s better,” claimed Google’s attorney John Schmidtlein during closing arguments in the spring of this year. Schmidtlein further argued that Google is still in a battle with fierce concurrence, not only from the general search engine companies such as Microsoft’s Bing and Bing, but also from specialized websites and apps consumers use to find food, flights to the airport and much more.

In his decision, Judge Mehta found that the position of being the default search engine was “extremely valuable real estate” for Google. “Even if a new entrant were positioned from a quality standpoint to bid for the default when an agreement expires, such a firm could compete only if it were prepared to pay partners upwards of billions of dollars in revenue share,” Judge Mehta said in his ruling.

Another lawsuit against the firm in relation to its technology used for advertising will be heard in September. In Europe however, Google has been fined billions of dollars in monopoly cases.