A federal judge in the United States ruled on Monday that Google violated antitrust laws by maintaining a monopoly over online search, in what is considered a landmark decision against a major tech company in the modern internet era.
As reported by the New York Times, Judge Amit Mehta of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia concluded in his 277-page judgment that Google had misused its dominance in the search business.
“Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly,” Mr Mehta said in his ruling.
The United States Department of Justice (DoJ) had earlier instituted a case against Google as part of a wave of similar antitrust suits involving the department including Apple, Amazon and Meta, the owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.
Google was accused by the DoJ of monopolising online search by paying other companies like Apple and Samsung billions of dollars yearly to have Google embedded in their devices as the automatic search engine.
The ruling brought an end to the year-long case which was battled in court in a 10-week trial last year.
“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,” the court ruling said.
The ruling is expected to influence other DoJ antitrust cases against Apple, Amazon and Meta. Apple has been accused by the government of making it difficult for consumers to ditch IPhone while Amazon’s case is about advertising.
