What you need to know
- A federal judge has ruled that Google’s payments to other companies to make its search engine the default option on smartphone web browsers violate US antitrust law.
- The decision came on Monday afternoon in a 286-page ruling, and gives the Department of Justice a significant victory over the tech firm.
- The case is centered around $26.3 billion Google paid in 2021, which has given the company a significant edge over competitors like Microsoft with its Bing search engine.
- Notably, the ruling has only determined that Google is guilty. It doesn’t include details about remedies, so how this decision will affect Google’s business is currently unclear.
A federal judge has ruled that Google’s payments to make its search engine the default option on smartphone web browsers like Safari were illegal. The decision came on Monday afternoon, giving the US Department of Justice (DOJ) a major victory in its case against the Alphabet Inc. subsidiary.
“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,” reads a statement from Judge Amit Mehta in the 286-page ruling. “It has violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act.”
The DOJ’s suit targets Google’s $26.3 billion in payments made to various different tech companies in 2021, resulting in Google being made the default search engine on smartphones. This has given the firm’s business a significant and distinct advantage over competing engines, the most notable of which is arguably Microsoft’s Bing.
What this decision means for Google isn’t precisely clear yet, as the document that contains this first ruling only focuses on the company’s guilt. Even so, any potential remedies will surely serve to bolster the position of Microsoft and other competitors in the search market.
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