Google was found guilty by Judge Amit P. Mehta of illegally monopolizing the search engine market. The 286-page ruling said the company paid $26 billion to smartphone and web browser makers and developers to make its search engine the default option and prevent rivals from gaining a foothold in the market.
Mehta also ruled that Google does not have a monopoly on the search advertising market, noting that Amazon and Walmart have begun serving ads related to searches on their own websites, but Google has a monopoly on the search text ads that appear at the top of the results page.
This is the first time in more than two decades that a US district court has found a tech company guilty of a crime. The judge has yet to say what changes he will order. But it wouldn’t be a surprise if Google offers Android users in the US the option to choose a search engine when setting up a new device.
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Other decisions could include separating the search business from Alphabet’s other products, such as Android or Chrome, which if done would be the largest “forced breakup” of a U.S. company since AT&T was ordered to be broken up in 1984 and sell off parts of its business to smaller, independent regional phone companies.
Google will appeal the decision
The investigation into the lawsuit revealed that Google systematically paid Samsung and Apple to use its search engine, generating over $300 billion in revenue from ads on the search engine and increasing its market share. Google’s market share rose from 80 percent in 2009 to 90 percent in 2020.
Google said it would appeal the decision, arguing that its success was based on people choosing its “superior products.”