August 7, 2024
A federal judge has ruled that Google engaged in illegal practices to preserve its search engine monopoly—delivering a major antitrust victory to the Justice Department in its effort to rein in Silicon Valley technology giants, reports The Wall Street Journal.
Google, which performs about 90% of the world’s Internet searches, exploited its market dominance to stomp out competitors, U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta in Washington, D.C,. said in the long-awaited ruling.
“Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly,” Mehta wrote in his 276-page decision released on Monday, August 5, in which he also faulted the company for destroying internal messages that could have been useful in the case.
That allowed the company to maintain a dominant position in the sponsored text advertising that accompanies search results, Mehta said.
Kent Walker, president of Global Affairs at Google parent, Alphabet, said the company planned to appeal the ruling.
“This decision recognizes that Google offers the best search engine, but concludes that we shouldn’t be allowed to make it easily available,” he said in a written statement that quoted complimentary passages from Mehta’s decision. “As this process continues, we will remain focused on making products that people find helpful and easy to use.”
Justice Department Antitrust chief Jonathan Kanter said the decision “paves the path for innovation for generations to come and protects access to information for all Americans.”
Mehta now is expected to consider what remedies to impose on Google in order to restore competition. That process could involve more court hearings over several months.
Mehta also criticized Google for automatically erasing chat messages after 24 hours—saying he was “taken aback by the lengths to which Google goes to avoid creating a paper trail for regulators and litigants.”
However, the judge said he didn’t impose punishments for that behavior requested by the government because “the sanctions Plaintiffs request do not move the needle on the court’s assessment of Google’s liability.”
Google had argued that its auto-erase policy was explicitly disclosed to plaintiffs years earlier, undercutting the argument that it intended to destroy evidence.
Google’s appeal could mean it will be years until the case is finally resolved, either via a settlement or a final judgment by the courts.
Research contact: @WSJ
