OMG, a win for the ordinary man. Of course, those sons of beaches at Google run a monopoly. Let's give three cheers for the judiciary. They got it right this time. Woooo.
Google just lost the biggest tech antitrust case in decades
Judge Amit Mehta said Google monopolized the search and search advertising markets
By
Laura Bratton, Quartz Media
Published2 hours ago
A federal judge ruled on Monday that Google monopolized online search and general search advertising markets, violating U.S. antitrust laws.
The DOJ sued Google in 2020 for allegedly monopolizing digital search, pushing out competitors such as DuckDuckGo and Microsoft’s Bing. It was the first major tech antitrust lawsuit since U.S. v. Microsoft, a 1998 case that found Microsoft monopolized computer operating systems. The trial concluded in May.
“Google’s dominance has gone unchallenged for well over a decade,” wrote Judge Amit Mehta in his 277-page ruling Tuesday. “Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly. It has violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act.”
Mehta said Google’s exclusive agreements with companies like Apple have allowed it to hike prices for advertisers without any blowback. He wrote “there is no evidence that any rival constrains Google’s pricing decisions” and that those unconstrained pricing decisions “have fueled Google’s dramatic revenue growth and allowed it to maintain high and remarkably stable operating profits.” The judge noted that nearly 90% of all search queries went through Google in 2020.
The Google case has been likened to the U.S. v. Microsoft case, which alleged Microsoft held a similarly overwhelming share — more than 90% — of the computer operating system market.
Regulators in the last several years have ramped up their antitrust scrutiny of Big Tech. This year, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice have collectively filed major lawsuits against Amazon, Apple, and Meta, as well as a second antitrust case against Google, which alleges monopolistic practices in the digital advertising market.
Mehta’s ruling has major implications for Google and consumers across the globe. Google will likely have to make substantial changes to its search engine business to comply with antitrust laws, which could open up a path for OpenAI’s new search engine as well as other rivals.
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