"Google violated antitrust laws to maintain its monopoly on online searches"

In order to maintain the monopoly of online searches Google acted illegally. This is what the federal judge of the US capital thinks Amit P. Mehtain a decision that hits the power of Big Tech and could radically alter the way they do business. The decision gives reason to the Department of Justice and to the American states that in 2020 had taken Google to court, accusing it of having illegally consolidated its dominancein part, by paying other companies, like Apple and Samsung and Verizon, billions of dollars a year to automatically become the search provider on their smartphones and Web browsers.

In a 286-page ruling, the judge ruled that the software giant Menlo Park has captured about 90% of the Internet search market through a partnership with Apple (18 billion dollars in 2021 according to the New York Times) and other telecommunications operators. And it ruled that Google has penalised Microsoft in the market for advertisements displayed next to search results, allowing it to illegally dominate that market as well.

The decision comes after a 10-week trial held last year. The federal government and several states argued that paying billions of dollars to be the automatic search engine on consumer devices, Google had denied its competitors the opportunity to build the scale required to compete with its search engine. In his testimony, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella he had expressed concern that his rival’s dominance had created a “Google Web” and that his relationship with Apple was “oligopolistic“. And he warned that if it continued undaunted, Google would probably become dominant in the development race as well. of artificial intelligence.

Google, for its part, defended itself by saying that it was winning the challenge “because it was better“. The order does not include remedies for the Menlo Park company’s behavior, but Judge Mehta will now have to decide on that, potentially forcing the company to change its operations or sell part of its business. The ruling could therefore radically alter the way Big Tech works to move in the market. According to the New York Timesthe decision is the most significant victory yet for U.S. regulators seeking to rein in the power of tech giants and will likely influence other government antitrust lawsuits against Google, AppleAmazon and Meta, which owns FacebookInstagram and Whatsapp.