If there’s one thing that tech conglomerate Google is synonymous with, it’s with being a search engine.
In fact, the term “Googling” has entered the modern lexicon, effectively meaning “to search online about a subject.”
After a recent major court ruling, Google may be trying to distance itself from that sort of verbiage.
As chronicled by multiple outlets, the government may have finally gotten one on Google after U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta outright called the tech titan a “monopolist” — and it all comes back to how (overly) ubiquitous Google is when it comes to search engines.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, this is the first time “in more than 20 years” that the government has actually gotten an antitrust win against a “tech giant.”
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This rare and historic win for the government comes after Mehta effectively ruled that Google was sidelining competitors with unfair practices, and that was giving the company carte blanche to provide poorer quality service to users due to the lack of a meaningful alternative.
“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,” Mehta wrote in the ruling, which the New York Times chronicled.
Mehta’s ruling boiled down to four key factors: “Specifically, the court holds that (1) there are relevant product markets for general search services and general search text ads; (2) Google has monopoly power in those markets; (3) Google’s distribution agreements are exclusive and have anticompetitive effects; and (4) Google has not offered valid procompetitive justifications for those agreements.”
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“Importantly,” Mehta noted, “the court also finds that Google has exercised its monopoly power by charging supracompetitive prices for general search text ads.
“That conduct has allowed Google to earn monopoly profits.”
According to The Verge, another key issue at hand is the manner in which Google secured being the exclusive search engine for both Samsung and Apple — the two leading makers of smartphones — and squeezed out other competitors.
Additionally, the tech outlet noted that Google paid Apple $20 billion in 2022 for that sort of premium app positioning.
Mehta did make several rulings in favor of Google, including that the company “is not liable for its actions involving its advertising platform.”
Still, those small wins may not mean much given the massive ramifications this ruling could have on a number of things, including ad revenue via the search engine.
The timing also couldn’t be worse for Google.
The massive tech company is grappling with a pair of seemingly self-inflicted PR wounds.
Days before Mehta’s ruling, Google was blasted for a “soul crushing” commercial at the already highly polarizing 2024 Summer Olympic Games.
Shortly before that incident, Google was publicly ripped — by much more public figures — after many accused its search engine of intentionally squelching search results involving former President Donald Trump.
Per The Verge, the next step of this saga will be be yet another antitrust trial between the Department of Justice and Google, scheduled for Sept. 9.
