Judge rules Google illegally dominates as internet search engine

Google said it intends to appeal the ruling. Credit: AP

A judge has ruled that Google's search engine has been illegally exploiting its dominance to squash competition and stifle innovation.

In a seismic decision that could shake up the internet and hobble one of the world’s best-known companies. The highly anticipated decision issued by US District Judge Amit Mehta comes nearly a year after the start of a trial pitting the Justice Department against Google in the country’s biggest antitrust showdown in a quarter century.

After reviewing reams of evidence that included testimony from top executives at Google, Microsoft and Apple during last year’s 10-week trial, Judge Mehta issued his potentially market-shifting decision three months after the two sides presented their closing arguments in early May.

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“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,” Mr Mehta wrote in his 277-page ruling.

He said Google’s dominance in the search market is evidence of its monopoly.

Google “enjoys an 89.2% share of the market for general search services, which increases to 94.9% on mobile devices,” the ruling said.

Mr Mehta's ruling focused on the billions of dollars Google spends every year to install its search engine as the default option on new mobile phones and tech gadgets.

In 2021 alone, Google spent more than $26 billion (around £20.35 billion) to lock in those default agreements, Judge Mehta said in his ruling. Google ridiculed those allegations, noting that consumers have historically changed search engines when they become disillusioned with the results they were getting.

For instance, Yahoo was the most popular search engine during the 1990s before Google came along.

Kent Walker, Google’s president of global affairs, said the company intends to appeal Mr Mehta’s findings, adding: “This decision recognises that Google offers the best search engine, but concludes that we shouldn’t be allowed to make it easily available.”

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