Google loses antitrust suit, declared 'monopolist'

Google abused its market power to remain the world’s default search provider

(Image credit: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images)

published 6 August 2024

What happened

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta ruled Monday that Google illegally operated a monopoly over the internet search industry. The massive antitrust decision followed a 10-week trial in which the Justice Department said Google was using its market dominance to unfairly quash competition at the expense of consumers, advertisers and rival search engines.

Who said what

"Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly," Mehta said. The decision is a "major blow" to the "bedrock of Google's empire," Yahoo Finance said. It's also a "huge win for the Justice Department and could have giant implications" for other major tech firms.

Mehta's ruling "focused on the billions of dollars Google spends every year to install its search engine as the default option on new cellphones and tech gadgets," The Associated Press said. Those contracts with other tech giants gave Google the "scale to block out would-be rivals" like Bing and DuckDuckGo, CNN said.

Attorney General Merrick Garland called the verdict a "historic win for the American people." Kent Walker, Google's president of global affairs, said Mehta's ruling "recognizes that Google offers the best search engine, but concludes that we shouldn't be allowed to make it easily available."

What next?

Mehta set a Sept. 6 hearing to begin fashioning Google's penalties. The company said it will appeal the decision, a process that could delay Mehta's remedies for as long as five years, the AP said. Google faces a separate antitrust suit over its advertising infrastructure and "scrutiny in other jurisdictions, including the European Union," The Washington Post said.

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Rafi Schwartz has worked as a politics writer at The Week since 2022, where he covers elections, Congress and the White House. He was previously a contributing writer with Mic focusing largely on politics, a senior writer with Splinter News, a staff writer for Fusion's news lab, and the managing editor of Heeb Magazine, a Jewish life and culture publication. Rafi's work has appeared in Rolling Stone, GOOD and The Forward, among others.