A US judge has ruled that Google unlawfully monopolized the search market through exclusive agreements

In a landmark decision on Monday, a judge ruled that Google had unlawfully monopolized the search market through a series of exclusive agreements, marking a significant victory for the government in its first major antitrust case against a technology giant in over twenty years.

Judge Amit Mehta, presiding in Washington, found that Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc., had utilized $26 billion in payments to secure its search engine as the default choice on smartphones and web browsers. This strategy effectively stifled competition and prevented other search engines from gaining a foothold in the market.

Judge Mehta stated, “Google’s distribution agreements foreclose a substantial portion of the general search services market and impair rivals’ opportunities to compete.” This ruling underscores the impact of Google’s financial arrangements on the broader search market and the challenges faced by competitors attempting to vie for market share.