In a landmark ruling delivered on Monday, August 5, 2024, Federal Judge Amit Mehta ruled that Google violated antitrust law in the US by illegally suppressing competition and stifling innovation.
The judge concurred with the Justice Department's argument that Google relied on anticompetitive payments to companies such as Apple, Samsung and AT&T to ensure its search engine is enabled by default on most smartphones. The company was reported to have spent $26.3 billion on this campaign in 2021 alone.
Google's practices were found to have violated Section 2 of the Sherman Antitrust Act in the markets for general search services and general text advertising. The judge noted that the default search engine deals 'are exclusive and have anticompetitive effects.
Following the recent judgement, Bloomberg reports that the Department of Justice attorneys could ask the presiding judge to order Google to sell portions of its business. This could lead to Google selling off parts of its business, including its Android operating system, Chrome web browser, and advertising platform AdWords, to restore competitive balance in the market.
Citing sources within the DOJ, Bloomberg reports that U.S. authorities are also considering 'less severe' options that would require the company to share data with rival search engines like Microsoft's Bing and DuckDuckGo.
Other options on the table include pushing for restrictions on Google's artificial intelligence products to prevent the company from gaining an unfair advantage over its rivals.
Meanwhile, as the feds ponder on the next move Googe has already announced plans to appeal the recent judgment.
Google, owned by Alphabet Inc, enjoys a massive user base worldwide, with billions of daily active users across its platforms, including the Google Search Engine, Gmail, Android OS, and YouTube.
The company has in the past defended itself against the accusations, stating that its market dominance is primarily due to its superior products.
"People don't use Google because they have to â€" they use it because they want to," Kent Walker, one of Google's top lawyers and its president of global affairs, said last year.
He added, "It's easy to switch your default search engine â€" we're long past the era of dial-up internet and CD-ROMs."
If the DOJ moves forward with the proposal to break up Google, it would be the first time in over two decades that federal authorities have pursued such an action. The last major instance occurred when the DOJ secured a victory in an antitrust case against Microsoft, though the bid to split the company was abandoned in 2001.
Wycliffe Nyamasege
