After a 10-week long trial, the US District Court has ruled Google violated US law through holding a monopoly over online “searching”.
This lawsuit was first brought against Google in Oct. 2020 by the US Department of Justice and Attorneys General from 11 states. Google was accused of:
- Entering into exclusive contracts to prevent the installation of competitor’s search engines
- Entering into exclusive contracts which require pre-installation of Google search engines and prevent their deletion on certain devices
- Entering into exclusive contracts with other technology companies which require Google to be the “default” search engine on their technologies
Over the years Google has obtained these exclusive contracts with companies such as Apple allowing them to gain dominance in the industry. These contracts make Google the quickest search engine and have allowed Google to control most of the online search advertising industry. Additionally, holding high levels of control over search advertising has allowed Google to charge extremely high prices for advertising on their spaces.
The court determined Google to be guilty of the charges, stating “Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly.” A separate proceeding is expected to follow this decision and will determine the penalties Google will face for their actions.
This marks the largest Big Tech antitrust lawsuit pursued by the US Department of Justice since their case against Microsoft in 1998 and it’s not the only antitrust lawsuit Google is currently involved in.
Google is also facing another lawsuit from the Biden Administration accusing them of being “engaged in a course of anticompetitive and exclusionary conduct that consisted of neutralizing or eliminating ad tech competitors,” according to the US Department of Justice.
The anticompetitive behavior in this case includes:
- Manipulating auctions to protect Google from competitors and prevent other search engines from growing.
- Distorting auction competition to prevent rival advertising companies from competing with Google.
- Acquiring competitors to gain monopolistic control over advertising spaces.
- Forcing the adoption of Google technologies through the restriction of other tools in their ad exchanges.
This case was brought against Google in January 2023 and is expected to go to trial in September of this year.
The outcomes of these lawsuits could result in the “breaking up” of Google and certain agencies within it, prevent the company from making certain exclusive deals and possibly require them to add a screen letting users know of other available search engines.
Despite these possible outcomes, users likely won’t see any differences anytime soon as Google is expected to appeal this decision, a process which could take years. Depending on the penalties Google faces, other Big Tech companies such as Microsoft and Apple could potentially take over sections of the search market that Google releases.
