A federal judge has ruled that Google violated U.S. antitrust law by illegally maintaining monopolies in the markets for general search services and general search text advertising.
Judge Amit P. Mehta of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, ruling in a case brought against Google by the Justice Department, said that Google had abused its monopoly power over the search business in part by paying companies to present its search engine as the default choice on their devices and web browsers.
Judge Mehta wrote in his opinion filed Monday:
“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. It has violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act.”
The court found that Google abused its dominant position in several ways:
- Paying hefty sums to ensure default status on devices and browsers
- Leveraging user data to reinforce its search engine’s dominance
- Illegally protecting its monopoly over search-related advertising
Key Findings Of Anticompetitive Behavior
The judge found that Google’s agreements with Apple, Mozilla, and Android partners foreclosed about 50% of the search market and 45% of the search advertising market from rivals.
These exclusive distribution agreements deprived competitors like Microsoft’s Bing of the scale needed to compete with Google in search and search advertising.
Judge Mehta concluded that Google’s conduct had anticompetitive effects:
- Foreclosing a substantial share of the market
- Depriving rivals of scale needed to compete
- Reducing incentives for rivals to invest and innovate in search
The case began in 2020 and culminated in a 10-week trial last fall.
