Google this: "Google is a monopoly"
Julia Conley for Common Dreams
A federal judge left no room for ambiguity Monday in a landmark ruling in a case brought by the Justice Department and states against tech giant Google, in which the government argued the company had illegally monopolized the search engine and advertising market.
"Google
is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly," said Judge Amit Mehta, who sits of the U.S. District
Court for the District of Columbia.
In U.S.
et al. v. Google, Mehta found that Google has "violated Section 2 of
the Sherman Act by maintaining its monopoly in two product markets in the
United States—general services and general text advertising—through its
exclusive distribution agreements."
The
American Economic Liberties Project (ALEP) called the ruling a "tremendous
win for consumers, innovation, and the entire tech industry."
During
a 10-week trial last year, the DOJ argued Google had used exclusionary
contracts to block its competitors from reaching potential users. The company's
deals with web firms such as Mozilla and cell phone companies like Apple and
Samsung have made Google the default search engine on millions of people's
phones and computers, as has its contracts with other major tech firms and
service providers.
The trial revealed that Google shares 36% of its search ad revenues from Safari with Apple and paid the company $20 billion in 2022 to ensure Google's search engine would have default status for Apple customers.
While
paying billions of dollars per year to maintain its default status, Google has
been using its dominance over ad space to collect more data about users and
improve its search engine, while its rivals have been cut off from that ad
space.
"If
that's what it takes for somebody to dislodge Google as the default search
engine, wouldn't the folks that wrote the Sherman Act be concerned about
it?" asked Mehta.
The
Justice Department proved to the court that Google had ensured its search
engine would conduct nearly 90% of all web searches.
Vanderbilt
University law professor Rebecca Haw Allensworth toldThe New York Times the ruling
represents "a very prominent test of the Biden administration's new
antitrust enforcement agenda."
The
DOJ and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have also sued Apple, Meta, and
Amazon for monopolizing the smartphone, social media, and online selling
markets.
William
Kovacic, former chairman of the FTC, told the Times in June that a victory
against Google would create "momentum that supports [the government's]
other cases."
U.S.
Rep. Pramila
Jayapal (D-Wash.) was among those who applauded the ruling, saying the
unfair practices Mehta outlined "are the exact behaviors that hurt
consumers, competition, and small businesses."
Lee
Hepner, senior legal counsel at ALEP, said the ruling "strikes at the core of how
hundreds of millions of Americans experience the internet."
"It
illustrates how Google has become one of the most powerful companies in the
world while undermining innovation and degrading the quality of its core
product," said Hepner. "The remedy must match the court's striking
verdict in this case. At a minimum that means an end to Google's exclusive
default agreements and breaking up business lines that have allowed Google to
extend its monopoly into every corner of the internet."
Google
is expected to appeal Mehta's decision, but as it faces another antitrust case
brought by the DOJ over its advertising technology business—set to go to trial
September 9—ALEP interim executive director Nidhi Hegde expressed hope that Monday's ruling "sends a
resounding signal that the antimonopoly movement is here to stay."
"The
promise of antitrust enforcement is that it will fully restore competition
where it has been lost," said Hepner, "and we'll be advocating that
the court use all of its power to do so."