Following a federal judge’s ruling that Google illegally abused its monopoly over the search industry, the company is facing significant consequences. The ruling came after a 10-week trial held in 2023, stemming from a 2020 lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice and several states. Judge Amit Mehta of the US District Court for the District of Columbia stated that Google violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act by acting as a monopolist to maintain its position. While no remedies have been imposed yet, the judge may require Google to change its operations or divest parts of its business. The lawsuit accused Google of maintaining its dominance through actions like paying companies to be the default search engine on their platforms. The ruling highlighted Google’s dependence on being the default search engine and the valuable user data it collects through these channels. Google argued that its market share is based on providing a superior product to consumers, and it intends to appeal the ruling. In addition to the search industry, the DOJ also accused Google of holding a monopoly over search advertising, inflating ad prices beyond what a free market would dictate. While Mehta agreed that Google charged supracompetitive prices for general search text ads, he stated that Google does not hold monopoly power in the broader search advertising market. The ruling also addressed Google’s failure to preserve employee chat messages relevant to the case, noting that Google deletes such messages by default after 24 hours. Google and the DOJ are scheduled to return to federal court in September for an ad tech case.
