US Judge Decides that Google Has Broken Anti-Trust Laws
A U.S. judge recently decides that Google broke antitrust laws by spending billions to create an illegal monopoly and become the world’s main search engine. This is the first major victory for federal authorities against Big Tech’s control of the market.
This ruling supports U.S. antitrust officials who are targeting Big Tech companies, a sector criticized by many.
“Google is a monopolist and has acted to keep its monopoly,” wrote U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta in Washington, D.C. Google controls about 90% of the online search market and 95% of smartphone searches.
The next phase, which includes deciding on solutions, could be long and followed by appeals, possibly reaching the U.S. Supreme Court. The legal process could continue into next year or even 2026.
Alphabet’s shares fell 4.5% on Monday amid a general drop in tech shares due to recession fears. Google advertising made up 77% of Alphabet’s total sales in 2023.
Alphabet plans to appeal the ruling. “This decision acknowledges that Google offers the best search engine but says we shouldn’t make it easily available,” Google said in a statement.
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland called the ruling “a historic win for the American people,” stating that “no company, no matter how large or influential, is above the law.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the ruling is “a victory for the American people,” emphasizing that “Americans deserve an internet that is free, fair, and open for competition.”
Judge Mehta noted that Google paid $26.3 billion in 2021 to ensure its search engine remains the default on smartphones and browsers, keeping its market dominance.
“Being the default is very valuable,” Mehta wrote. “Even if a new company had a good search engine, it could only compete if it could pay billions to partners to cover any revenue losses from switching.”
He added, “Google knows that losing defaults would hurt its profits significantly. For example, losing the Safari default would mean a big drop in searches and billions in lost revenue.”
This ruling is the first major decision in a series of cases against Big Tech monopolies. The case, filed by the Trump administration, was heard by a judge last year.
“A forced breakup of Google’s search business would cut off Alphabet’s biggest source of revenue. Even losing the ability to make exclusive default deals could hurt Google,” said Emarketer senior analyst Evelyn Mitchell-Wolf, noting that a long legal process would delay any immediate changes for consumers.
In the past four years, federal antitrust regulators have also sued Meta Platforms, Amazon.com, and Apple, accusing them of maintaining illegal monopolies. These cases began under former President Donald Trump.
Senator Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat who leads the Senate Judiciary Committee’s antitrust subcommittee, said the case’s continuation through different administrations shows strong bipartisan support for antitrust enforcement.
“It’s a huge win for the American people that antitrust enforcement is strong when it comes to competition,” she said. “Google is a rampant monopolist.”
When it was filed in 2020, the Google search case was the first time in a generation that the U.S. government accused a major corporation of an illegal monopoly. Microsoft settled with the Justice Department in 2004 over claims that it forced its Internet Explorer web browser on Windows users.
While this verdict has not direct impact to the SEO and Google Ads industries imminently, it’s very likely that things will shake up in SEO and Google Ads in the foreseeable future.