A US judge has ruled that Google has acted illegally in order to maintain a monopoly on the search engine space. The judge said that Google violates antitrust laws in order to maintain its dominance by paying billions of dollars in order to make it the default search engine on smartphones and web browsers.
The ruling was issued by US District Judge Amit Mehta in response to a lawsuit filed by the US Department of Justice in 2020, which argued that Google controls 90% of the search engine market. The trial unfolded over the course of ten weeks.
“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,” Judge Mehta wrote in his 277-page opinion.
Prosecutors argued that Google’s practice of paying Apple, Samsung, Mozilla and other companies to come pre-installed on devices is anticompetitive. Judge Mehta found that Google paid $26 billion USD to companies in 2021 alone.
The ruling could lead to Google being forced to disband some of the company in order to decrease its dominance. Google says it plans to appeal the decision.
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