The US ruling is a major blow to Google and could lead to massive changes in the search engine market that the company dominates.
Google has lost a major antitrust lawsuit in the US, which could have serious consequences for the future of its business and the search market it dominates.
In its ruling, the US court judged Google as a monopolist and that one of its key advantages over rivals is “default distribution” – having Google as the default search engine on various devices. The judge said that Google has secured various contracts to be the default search engine on various devices, giving it a major advantage in the market.
“After having carefully considered and weighed the witness testimony and evidence, the court reaches the following conclusion: Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly,” the court said in its verdict.
The US court said Google has entered into distribution contracts with browser developers, mobile device manufacturers and wireless carriers, which means Google is the default search engine “right out of the box at key search access points”. The judge found that Google has “monopoly power” in the general search market and that its distribution agreements have “anticompetitive effects”.
The US complaints against Google were first issued in 2020 by the US Department of Justice after an investigation into Big Tech competition. The department issued two separate lawsuits against the tech giant. This particular antitrust case was massive, with the court ruling noting how “millions of pages exchanged hands” during the trial.
The verdict did not include what penalties Google should face, but the decision is a major blow to the tech giant, which has faced scrutiny for years over its practices. Alphabet is currently facing a £13.6bn lawsuit brought forward by online publishers in the UK accusing the tech giant of anticompetitive behaviour in the adtech space.
There are speculations that the verdict could lead to the tech giant being broken up into smaller entities and could have a significant impact on the tech sector. This is due to the fact it bears many similarities to a monopoly case against Microsoft in 1998, which ruled that the company had attempted to monpolise the PC market.
That case ruled that Microsoft should be split into two companies, one which would handle its operating system and another that would handle everything else. This ruling never took place as Microsoft reached a different settlement in 2001, but it could be used as a precedent for the current case against Google.
Google did not respond to media requests for comment, but its president of global affairs Kent Walker said the company will appeal the decision, The Guardian reports.
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