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A federal judge ruled Monday that Google violated US antitrust law with its search business, marking a significant court defeat that could reshape how millions of Americans access information online and disrupt decades of dominance.
“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,” Judge Amit Mehta wrote in his opinion. “It has violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act.”
The decision by the US District Court for the District of Columbia challenges Google's oldest and most significant business. The company has invested tens of billions of dollars in exclusive contracts to secure its position as the default search provider on smartphones and web browsers.
These contracts have allowed Google to stifle potential competitors like Microsoft's Bing and DuckDuckGo, according to the US government in an antitrust lawsuit initiated during the Trump administration.
Judge Mehta emphasized that Google’s powerful position led to anticompetitive behavior that needs to be curbed. Specifically, he pointed out that Google’s exclusive deals with Apple and other key players in the mobile ecosystem were anticompetitive and that the company charged high prices in search advertising due to its monopoly power.
Although the court did not find Google to have a monopoly in search ads, the broader implications of the opinion signal the first major decision in a series of US government-led competition lawsuits against Big Tech. This case has been described as the most significant tech antitrust case since the US government’s showdown with Microsoft at the turn of the millennium.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/05/business/google-loses-antitrust-lawsuit-doj/index.html
“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,” Judge Amit Mehta wrote in his opinion. “It has violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act.”
The decision by the US District Court for the District of Columbia challenges Google's oldest and most significant business. The company has invested tens of billions of dollars in exclusive contracts to secure its position as the default search provider on smartphones and web browsers.
These contracts have allowed Google to stifle potential competitors like Microsoft's Bing and DuckDuckGo, according to the US government in an antitrust lawsuit initiated during the Trump administration.
Judge Mehta emphasized that Google’s powerful position led to anticompetitive behavior that needs to be curbed. Specifically, he pointed out that Google’s exclusive deals with Apple and other key players in the mobile ecosystem were anticompetitive and that the company charged high prices in search advertising due to its monopoly power.
Although the court did not find Google to have a monopoly in search ads, the broader implications of the opinion signal the first major decision in a series of US government-led competition lawsuits against Big Tech. This case has been described as the most significant tech antitrust case since the US government’s showdown with Microsoft at the turn of the millennium.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/05/business/google-loses-antitrust-lawsuit-doj/index.html
