Google holds a monopoly on the internet search business and has abused it, United States District judge Amit Mehta ruled yesterday. The landmark antitrust trial lasted for nearly three months and a new one now begins to decide how the tech giant will be penalized.
Google has unlawfully maintained its dominance in search by using anticompetitive deals to keep rivals from gaining traction. And without fear of pressure from competitors, Google has been able to charge whatever it wants for search ads, he said.
The New York Times describes it as the first antitrust decision of the modern internet era.
"Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly," Judge Mehta said in his ruling.
The ruling is the most significant victory to date for American regulators who are trying to rein in the power of tech giants in the internet era. It is likely to influence other government antitrust lawsuits against Google, Apple, Amazon and Meta, the owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.
You can read the 286-page ruling for yourself.
It's the biggest antitrust case since the 1990s, when the Department of Justice took on Microsoft for abusing Windows' success to control retailers and exclude competing software. More antitrust lawsuits are brewing against Google, Apple, Amazon, Meta/Facebook and others; Google paying Apple billions of dollars to exclude competitors from iOS was a major part of the lawsuit it just lost.
The DoJ hasn't formally signaled what remedies it wants, but anything less than splitting Google into separate companies—search, advertising, and everything else—will likely amount to "a fine is just the price of doing business."
Previously:
• The Antitrust Case Against Facebook: a turning point in the debate over Big Tech and monopoly
• Beyond antitrust: the anti-monopoly movement and what it stands for
• Bill Gates just accidentally proved that even 'unsuccessful' antitrust enforcement works
