Google Takes Massive Hit As Federal Judge Rules It Violated US Antitrust Law

Google took a massive hit Monday after a federal judge ruled the company violated U.S. antitrust law through its search business, according to a court filing.

U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta submitted the ruling, rebuking one of Google’s oldest businesses that the company has spent billions on through exclusive contracts in order to obtain a dominant position within the tech industry, according to CNN. Mehta stated Google not only acted as a “monopolist,” but abused a “monopoly” through their search business to be the automatic search engine for browsers such as Apple’s Safari and Mozilla’s Firefox.

“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,” US District Judge Amit Mehta Mehta wrote. “It has violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act.”

Last January, the Department of Justice (DOJ), along with a handful of other state attorneys general, sued the tech company for “monopolizing multiple digital advertising technology products” which they claimed violated Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act, according to a press release.

“Today’s complaint alleges that Google has used anticompetitive, exclusionary, and unlawful conduct to eliminate or severely diminish any threat to its dominance over digital advertising technologies,” Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said at the time.

Over the years, Google has reportedly spent billions to keep their automatic search engine on specific browsers, paying Apple roughly $18 billion in 2021 to be the default search engine, The New York Times reported.

During the trial, Google’s chief executive, Sundar Pichai, claimed that the company created a better service for consumers, according to the NYT. Microsoft’s chief executive, Satya Nadella, called out the company for creating an “oligopolistic” relationship with Apple.

In addition to its search business, the DOJ claimed Google had a protected monopoly of its ads that were run within the search engine, the NYT reported. Lawyers for the DOJ called out the tech company for raising ad prices beyond a reasonable rate within the free market, thus allegedly providing evidence of Google’s power as billions were consumed from ads.

While the case is the first in over 20 years for an antitrust trial between the DOJ and a tech company, the ruling has the ability to affect other similar lawsuits against Google, Apple, Amazon and Meta, the owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, according to the NYT.

Although Mehta did not give a solution to Google’s behavior, the judge is expected to decide the ramifications for the company soon.

Google told the Daily Caller News Foundation that they plan to appeal the decision, stating that while they “appreciate the Court’s finding” they plan to “remain focused on making products that people find helpful and easy to use.”

“This decision recognizes that Google offers the best search engine, but concludes that we shouldn’t be allowed to make it easily available,” Global Affairs President Kent Walker said.

“We appreciate the Court’s finding that Google is ‘the industry’s highest quality search engine, which has earned Google the trust of hundreds of millions of daily users’, that Google ‘has long been the best search engine, particularly on mobile devices’, ‘has continued to innovate in search’ and that ‘Apple and Mozilla occasionally assess Google’s search quality relative to its rivals and find Google’s to be superior,” Walker continued. “Given this, and that people are increasingly looking for information in more and more ways, we plan to appeal.  As this process continues, we will remain focused on making products that people find helpful and easy to use.”

Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to include a statement from Google Global Affairs President Kent Walker.

Featured Image Credit: Flickr/Anthony Quintano