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HUGE: A federal court judge rules — in a case brought by the Trump DOJ and continued by the Biden DOJ — that Google is an illegal monopoly and violated anti-trust laws by abusing their search monopoly by forcing consumers to use its search engine.
Remedies to be decided next.
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) August 5, 2024
I should also note that this decision is very beneficial to @rumblevideo, which has long been suing Google on the ground that it illegally abuses its search engine anti-trust power to suffocate competitors.
I wrote about Rumble’s big 2022 victory allowing the case to proceed: pic.twitter.com/AYZO3fLCnA
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) August 5, 2024
This is theoretically a very big deal.
Apple stock dropped because it’s now illegal for Google to pay Apple $20 billion per year to make Google their default search engine.
A U.S. judge ruled on Monday that Google violated antitrust law, spending billions of dollars to create an illegal monopoly and become the world’s default search engine, the first big win for federal authorities taking on Big Tech’s market dominance.
The ruling paves the way for a second trial to determine potential fixes, possibly including a breakup of Google parent Alphabet, which would change the landscape of the online advertising world that Google has dominated for years.
It is also a green light to aggressive U.S. antitrust enforcers prosecuting Big Tech, a sector that has been under fire from across the political spectrum.
“The court reaches the following conclusion: Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly,” District Judge Amit Mehta wrote. The search engine giant controls about 90% of the online search market, and 95% on smartphones.
The “remedy” phase could be lengthy, followed by potential appeals to the District of Columbia Circuit and U.S. Supreme Court. The legal wrangling could play out into next year, or even 2026.
Shares of Google parent Alphabet fell 4.5% on Monday as part of a broad tech share decline. Google advertising was 77% of Alphabet’s total sales in 2023.
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Mehta noted that Google had paid $26.3 billion in 2021 alone to ensure that its search engine is the default on smartphones and browsers, and to keep its dominant market share.
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The ruling is the first major decision in a series of cases taking on alleged monopolies in Big Tech. This case, filed by the Trump administration, went before a judge from September to November of last year.
We always say the government never does anything good. That’s maybe a slight exaggeration.
This isn’t a minor issue in the scheme of things, but obviously, Google losing market share would be a good thing in theory.
What I will say: it matters a lot less now with AI prepared to make search completely obsolete anyway.
Here’s our statement on today’s decision in the DOJ case:
“This decision recognizes that Google offers the best search engine, but concludes that we shouldn’t be allowed to make it easily available. We appreciate the Court’s finding that Google is ‘the industry’s highest quality…
— Google Communications (@Google_Comms) August 5, 2024
