The case portrayed Google as a technological bully that methodically thwarted competition to protect its search engine.
A US judge has ruled that Google spent billions of dollars to create an illegal monopoly for its search engine, exploiting its dominance to crush competition and stifle innovation.
Monday's landmark ruling that Google violated antitrust law marks the first major success for U.S. authorities in confronting the dominance of Big Tech, which has come under fire from across the political spectrum.
“The Court concludes that Google is a monopolist and has acted as such to maintain its monopoly,” U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta wrote in his 277-page ruling.
Google's dominance of the search market was evidence of its monopoly, the ruling concluded.
Google “enjoys an 89.2% market share of general search services, which increases to 94.9% on mobile devices,” the ruling said.
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland called the decision “a historic victory for the American people,” adding that “no company, no matter how large or influential, is above the law.”
The decision represents a major setback for Google and its parent company, Alphabet, which had argued that its popularity stemmed from consumers' overwhelming desire to use a search engine that has become synonymous with looking up things online.
Google's search engine is estimated to process 8.5 billion queries each day worldwide, nearly double its daily volume of 12 years ago, according to a recent study by investment firm BOND.
Google's president of global affairs, Kent Walker, said the company would appeal the ruling, noting that Mehta had characterized Google as the best search engine in the industry.
“Given this and the fact that people are increasingly seeking information in more ways, we plan to appeal,” Walker said.
The ruling paves the way for a second trial to determine possible solutions, possibly including breaking up Alphabet, which would change the landscape of the online advertising world that Google has dominated for years.
The ruling is the first major decision in a series of cases addressing alleged monopolies at big tech companies, including Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, Amazon and Apple. The Google case, brought by the administration of former President Donald Trump, was before a judge between September and November of last year.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee's antitrust subcommittee, said the fact that the case continued across administrations showed strong bipartisan support for antitrust enforcement.
“It is a huge victory for the American people that antitrust enforcement remains in place when it comes to competition,” he said. “Google is a rampant monopolist.”
The case cast Google as a tech bully that methodically thwarted competition to protect a search engine that has become the centerpiece of a digital advertising machine that generated nearly $240 billion in revenue last year.
Justice Department lawyers argued that Google's monopoly allowed it to charge advertisers artificially high prices while enjoying the luxury of not having to invest additional time and money into improving the quality of its search engine — a lax approach that harmed users.
Mehta’s ruling highlighted the billions of dollars Google spends each year to install its search engine as the default option on new mobile phones and electronic devices. In 2021 alone, Google spent more than $26 billion to secure those default agreements, the judge said.
Experts said the appeals process would likely take years, however, and that would likely delay any immediate impact on users and advertisers.
