Google broke the law by inking multibillion-dollar deals to make its search engine the default on web browsers and smartphones including devices from Apple and Samsung, a federal judge ruled Monday.
Judge Amit Mehta of U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia said Google’s payments to partners to be the default search engine — estimated to be more than $26 billion in 2021 — effectively blocked any other competitor from succeeding in the market. In a 277-page ruling Monday (available at this link) in the antitrust case brought by the Justice Department, he wrote that Google had abused its monopoly in the internet search business.
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“Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly,” Judge Mehta wrote in the ruling. The internet giant violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act “by maintaining its monopoly in two product markets in the United States — general search services and general text advertising — through its exclusive distribution agreements.”
The decision Monday did not include remedies for Google’s behavior. The judge will next decide what those will be — including potentially forcing it to alter business practices or even ordering a breakup of Google’s businesses.
In a statement, Kent Walker, president of global affairs for Google, said the company would appeal the decision.
“This decision recognizes that Google offers the best search engine, but concludes that we shouldn’t be allowed to make it easily available,” Walker said. “We appreciate the Court’s finding that Google is ‘the industry’s highest-quality search engine, which has earned Google the trust of hundreds of millions of daily users,’ that Google ‘has long been the best search engine, particularly on mobile devices,’ ‘has continued to innovate in search’ and that ‘Apple and Mozilla occasionally assess Google’s search quality relative to its rivals and find Google’s to be superior.’ Given this, and that people are increasingly looking for information in more and more ways, we plan to appeal. As this process continues, we will remain focused on making products that people find helpful and easy to use.”
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement: “This victory against Google is an historic win for the American people. No company — no matter how large or influential — is above the law. The Justice Department will continue to vigorously enforce our antitrust laws.”
In 2020, the Justice Department, filedan antitrust lawsuit againstGoogle, which was joined by a coalition of 38 attorneys general, alleging the company had a monopoly on search and search advertising to the detriment of consumers and competitors. In its lawsuit, the DOJ sought an injunction to stop Google from engaging in anticompetitive behavior as well as “structural relief as needed to cure any anticompetitive harm.”
Discovery in the antitrust case against Google began in December 2020 and concluded in March 2023. The D.C. district court held a nine-week bench trial starting in September 2023. After “receiving extensive post-trial submissions,” the court held closing arguments over two days in early May 2024, before Judge Mehta’s Aug. 5 ruling.
Google has “monopoly power” for general search services and general search text ads and its distribution agreements are “exclusive and have anticompetitive effects,” the judge wrote in the ruling. “Google has not offered valid procompetitive justifications for those agreements. importantly, the court also finds that Google has exercised its monopoly power by charging supracompetitive prices for general search text ads. That conduct has allowed Google to earn monopoly profits.”
