\n
A US judge has ruled Google acted illegally to crush its competition and maintain a monopoly on online search and related advertising.<\/strong><\/p>\nThe landmark decision on Monday is a major blow to Alphabet, Google\u2019s parent company, and could reshape how technology giants do business.<\/p>\n
Google was sued by the US Department of Justice in 2020 over its control of about 90% of the online search market.<\/p>\n
It is one of several lawsuits that have been filed against the big tech companies as US antitrust authorities attempt to strengthen competition in the industry.<\/p>\n
This case has at times been described as posing an existential threat to Google and its owner given its dominance of the search and online advertising business.<\/p>\n
It is unclear yet what penalties Google and Alphabet will face as a result of the decision. The fines or other remedies will be decided in a future hearing.<\/p>\n
The government has asked for \u201cstructural relief\u201d \u2013 which could, in theory at least, mean the break-up of the company.<\/p>\n
In his decision, US District Judge Amit Mehta said Google had paid billions to ensure it is the default search engine on smartphones and browsers.<\/p>\n
\u201cGoogle is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly,\u201d Judge Mehta wrote in his 277-page opinion.<\/p>\n
Alphabet said it plans to appeal against the ruling.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis decision recognises that Google offers the best search engine, but concludes that we shouldn\u2019t be allowed to make it easily available,\u201d the statement from the company said.<\/p>\n
US Attorney General Merrick Garland, the country\u2019s top prosecutor, hailed the ruling as a \u201chistoric win for the American people\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo company \u2013 no matter how large or influential \u2013 is above the law,\u201d Mr Garland said in a statement on Monday. \u201cThe Justice Department will continue to vigorously enforce our antitrust laws.\u201d<\/p>\n
Federal antitrust regulators have filed other pending lawsuits against Big Tech companies \u2013 including Meta Platforms, which owns Facebook, Amazon.com and Apple Inc \u2013 accusing them of operating unlawful monopolies.<\/p>\n
Monday\u2019s ruling comes after a 10-week trial in Washington DC, in which prosecutors accused Google of spending billions of dollars annually to Apple, Samsung, Mozilla and others to be pre-installed as the default search engine across platforms.<\/p>\n
The US said Google typically pays more than $10bn (\u00a37.8bn) a year for that privilege, securing its access to a steady stream of user data that helped maintain its hold on the market.<\/p>\n
Doing so, prosecutors said, meant other companies have not had the opportunity or resources to meaningfully compete.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe best testimony for that, for the importance of defaults, is Google\u2019s chequebook,\u201d argued Department of Justice lawyer Kenneth Dintzer during the trial.<\/p>\n
Google\u2019s search engine is a big revenue generator for the company, bringing in billions of dollars thanks in large part to advertising displayed on its results pages.<\/p>\n
Google\u2019s lawyers defended the company by saying that users are attracted to their search engine because they find it useful, and that Google is investing to make it better for consumers.<\/p>\n
\u201cGoogle is winning because it\u2019s better,\u201d said Google\u2019s lawyer John Schmidtlein during closing arguments earlier this year.<\/p>\n
Mr Schmidtlein also argued during the trial that Google still faces intense competition, not just from general search engine firms, such as Microsoft\u2019s Bing, but more specialised sites and apps that people use to find restaurants, airline flights and more.<\/p>\n
In his ruling, Judge Mehta concluded that being the default search engine is \u201cextremely valuable real estate\u201d for Google.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven if a new entrant were positioned from a quality standpoint to bid for the default when an agreement expires, such a firm could compete only if it were prepared to pay partners upwards of billions of dollars in revenue share,\u201d Judge Mehta wrote.<\/p>\n
Another case against the technology company over its advertising technology is scheduled to go to trial in September. In Europe, meanwhile, Google has been fined billions in monopoly cases.<\/p>\n
citinewsroom.com <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A US judge has ruled Google acted illegally to crush its competition and maintain a monopoly on online search and related advertising. The landmark decision on Monday is a major blow to Alphabet, Google\u2019s parent company, and could reshape how technology giants do business. Google was sued by the US Department of Justice in 2020 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":206495,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-206494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business"],"yoast_head":"\n
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