Is It Illegal Monopoly of Google? US Judge’s Ruling
The illegal monopoly of Google is the talk of the town as a US judge ruled out against it. The judge declared that Google violated an antitrust law. The company incurred billions of dollars just for the sake of creating an illegal monopoly, which is unacceptable.
District Judge, Amit Mehta cited, “The court reaches the following conclusion: Google is a monopolist, and it has acted one to maintain its monopoly”.
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Data shows that 90 per cent of the online research is conducted on Google solely, while search engine use from smartphones is 95 per cent.
Undoubtedly, Google has become one of the world’s default search engines showing its clear tech market dominance. To substantiate these facts, the illegal monopoly of Google is exposed by the US judge’s ruling that has an upcoming second trial.
The second trial would most likely discuss potential fixes and a breakup of Google’s parent Alphabet. It would assist in formulating a new horizon for online advertising that Google has been dominating on a global scale.
Google’s advertising about Alphabet comprised 77 per cent of the total sales in the year 2023. Alphabet plans to abide by the ruling of the US judge, Mr Mehta.
The decision has also highlighted an aggressive US antitrust that examples the judiciary system to prosecute big tech companies of the region. Therefore, the tech sector is constantly under fire from various dimensions of the political spectrum.
Google is now considering a “remedy” phase that could take time. Potential appeals to the US Supreme Court and the District of Columbia Circuit would come after this phase.
The following legal consequences can be stretched out into the next year or 2026. In response, Google stated, “This decision recognises that Google offers the best search engine, but concludes that we shouldn’t be allowed to make it easily available”.
Judge’s feedback on the illegal monopoly of Google
US Attorney General Merrick Garland was happy that this ruling openly declared that no company, no matter how big it is, could be above the law. “It is a historic win for the American people”, he asserted by adding that the giants cannot be as influential as the country’s law.
Putting a limitation on the extensive power of this big giant is one of the greatest victories of the country, the federal judge said. He was of the view that Google is illegally “abusing” its market power to smash its competition in internet search.
Mr Mehta disclosed some other details about the illegal monopoly of Google that it has paid $26.3 billion only in the year 2021 to ensure that it remains the sole default search engine worldwide. It involves laptops, computers and smartphones, all-inclusive.
Although, in recent years, Google has transformed some of its strategies to delve deeper into the “customer experience” and for that, it tries to monitor online usage of global customers, several federal antitrust regulators have sued its businesses.
For example, Meta Platforms, Amazon.com and Apple are facing red alerts from these regulators recently who have illegally maintained this monopoly.
The press secretary of the White House, Karine Jean Pierre said the ruling is consistent with the state’s policy that the internet should be “more competitive”. People should have options to choose from and should be comfortable with what they want to use and what not. She said that the Biden-Harris agenda focuses on building an economy that facilitates entrepreneurs along with small businesses so that everyone has an equal share in the American economic wheel.
One of the first cases against Google was filed in the year 2020 where the US government accused the company of major monopoly tactics. Moreover, Microsoft made a settlement with the US Justice Department two decades ago, in 2004, that it somehow forced Windows users to use Internet Explorer Web browser only.