Google violated antitrust laws to maintain dominance over online search, judge says

Google violated U.S. antitrust laws in maintaining a monopoly over the online search business, a federal judge ruled Monday, in a landmark ruling for the Justice Department in its efforts to rein in big tech giants.

D.C. District judge Amit Mehta declared Google violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act, finding the company illegally secured its dominance in the search market by paying billions of dollars to smartphone carriers like Apple to make Google the automatic search engine for their phones -- effectively locking any rival businesses from being able to compete.

"Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly," Mehta wrote in his ruling.

The ruling followed a 10-week trial in Washington, D.C., last year where Justice Department officials and several dozen state attorneys general sought to put on full display Google's anti-competitive tactics that paved the way for it to become the world's leading search engine.

While Mehta's ruling does not prescribe any specific remedies, he will now have to decide appropriate steps to address Google's monopoly that experts say could include specific orders to the company to address its business practices or, more drastically, force it to sell off parts of the company.

In a statement, Google instead chose to focus on the positive comments the judge made in 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," Kent Walker, Google's president for global affairs, said in the statement about the ruling. "We appreciate the Court’s finding that Google is 'the industry’s highest quality search engine, which has earned Google the trust of hundreds of millions of daily users', that Google 'has long been the best search engine, particularly on mobile devices', 'has continued to innovate in search' and that 'Apple and Mozilla occasionally assess Google’s search quality relative to its rivals and find Google’s to be superior.'"

He continued, confirming the company will appeal, saying, "Given this, and that people are increasingly looking for information in more and more ways, we plan to appeal. As this process continues, we will remain focused on making products that people find helpful and easy to use."

The Justice Department hailed the landmark ruling, with Attorney General Merrick Garland saying in a statement, "This victory against Google is an historic win for the American people. No company -- no matter how large or influential -- is above the law. The Justice Department will continue to vigorously enforce our antitrust laws."

"This landmark decision holds Google accountable," Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter added in a statement. "It paves the path for innovation for generations to come and protects access to information for all Americans. This victory is a reflection on the tireless efforts of the dedicated public servants at the Antitrust Division and our state law enforcement partners whose work made today’s decision possible."