Google loses antitrust case over search

A US federal judge ruled on Monday that Google illegally held a monopoly in two market areas: search and text advertising.

The government’s landmark case, presented in 2020, alleged that Google maintained its share of the overall search market by creating strong barriers to entry and a feedback loop that sustained its dominance. The court found that Google violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act, which prohibits monopolies.

The ruling marks the first antitrust ruling against a technology company in decades.

“Google is a monopolist and acted as such to maintain its monopoly,” Judge Amit Mehta of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia wrote in the decision.

The court focused on Google’s exclusive search agreements on Android and of the apple iPhone and iPad devices, saying they helped cement Google’s anti-competitive behavior and dominance over search markets.

General search services, according to the court, apply to Google’s main search engine, where it traditionally competed with Yahoo. General search text advertising refers to text ads that appear alongside search results. The court ruled that in both areas Google operated as a monopoly. However, the ruling concluded that general search advertising is not a market, so there can be no monopoly control.

The court also refused to sanction Google for failing to preserve employees’ chat messages.

The Justice Department and a bipartisan group of attorneys general from 38 states and territories, led by Colorado and Nebraska, filed similar but separate antitrust lawsuits against Google in 2020. The lawsuits were combined for pretrial purposes, such as discovery of evidence.

Alphabet shares fell more than 4% on Monday, dragged down by a broad decline in stocks around the world.

The Justice Department had no immediate comment. Google did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

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