The Memo: Google loses US antitrust lawsuit over illegal online search monopoly

Earlier this month, a landmark decision was made by US judge, Amit Mehta, who ruled that Google has acted illegally in maintaining an online search engine monopoly. This was the result of a ten-week trial in Washington, D.C., which found that Google had been paying over $10 billion annually to Apple, Samsung and other companies to be the default, pre-installed, search engine on web applications, such as Apple’s Safari. Washington is just one of 17 states that brought forward the suit in partnership with the US Department of Justice (DOJ). 

Judge Mehta stated that these agreements in turn helped to perpetuate an illegal search engine monopoly by blocking competitors. The Justice Department stated that 90% of all web searches were conducted via Google, a number which the company disagreed with. The company has made it clear that it will be appealing the ruling. After all, Google and Alphabet, its parent company, are the beneficiaries of a large advertising revenue stream generated by the search engine. In fact, its search engine revenue grew by 14% in Q2 2024 alone, amounting to a whopping $48.5 billion. The more users Google has, the more consumer data it can collect, thus creating a more attractive product to advertisers. 

However, only a week or so later in San Francisco, U.S. District Judge Rita Lin dismissed the matter due to a lack of factual evidence of harm. That being said, she stated that the claimants could file an amended lawsuit due to the successful D.C. court ruling.  

It may be worth noting that the announcement of Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign has resulted in further uncertainty. She has close ties with Paul, Weiss, the law firm representing Google, and one of its litigators has been assisting with her debate preparations. Even though Harris has not yet made her views on tech antitrust known, it appears likely that, if she does win the election, she may appoint tech-friendly DOJ and Federal Trade Commission leaders. The concerns are that this may subsequently lead to Google dismissals in other states, or cash settlements with no tangible results. During the last tech-friendly administration, under Obama in 2010, any probes into Google’s monopoly were blocked. 

Despite this, the Washington ruling means the DOJ is focusing on how to offset Google’s monopoly. This could lead to Google having to end its default search engine agreements with Apple or being instructed to break up certain elements of the company. The agreement between the DOJ and Google to offset its monopolistic practices will be made public in a hearing scheduled for 6 September.