A federal judge has ruled that Google has illegally monopolized the search market, “handing the government an epic win in its first major antitrust case against a tech giant in more than two decades,” reports Bloomberg.
Judge Amit Mehta in Washington said that the Alphabet unit’s US$26 billion in payments to make its search engine the default option on smartphones and web browsers effectively blocked any other competitor from succeeding in the market. The judge says Google’s agreements with Apple and other smartphone makers have a “significant effect” maintaining Google’s search monopoly, keeping other search engines from competing and reinforcing Google’s dominant position.
A 2023 New York Times report said Google paid Apple “around $18 billion” in 2021 to be the default search engine in Safari on Macs, iPads, and iPhones. The terms and effects of Apple’s deal with Google have become the centerpiece of the US v. Google trial.
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