A federal judge has ruled that Google illegally abused its monopoly in the search industry, violating antitrust laws. The ruling stems from a 2020 lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice and several states. Judge Amit Mehta found that Google maintained its dominance by paying billions to companies like Apple and Samsung to be the default search engine on their devices, controlling nearly 90% of web searches. Google plans to appeal the decision.
While acknowledging Google's high-quality search engine, the court concluded that the company shouldn't be allowed to make it so easily available. The judge also determined that Google has monopoly power in general search text ads, enabling it to charge inflated prices. However, the ruling didn't find a monopoly in the broader search advertising market. No specific remedies have been imposed yet, but potential outcomes could include operational changes or divestiture of certain business segments. A separate ad tech case against Google is scheduled for September.
The timing of this ruling is interesting. We are on the cusp of a generative AI-forced revision of the web. By the time this case goes through its appeal, it is very likely that summaries of content will replace links to websites and that every AI platform will crawl the web and deliver search results that are extremely competitive to Google. Alphabet knows this; they will not fall asleep at the wheel. No matter how Google attempts to solve this issue, though, they are going to face a new online landscape. As for monopolistic practices? I think the answer is obvious.
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ABOUT SHELLY PALMER
Shelly Palmer is the Professor of Advanced Media in Residence at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and CEO of The Palmer Group, a consulting practice that helps Fortune 500 companies with technology, media and marketing. Named he covers tech and business for , is a regular commentator on CNN and writes a popular . He's a , and the creator of the popular, free online course, . Follow or visit .
