The Verdict is in – Google is Guilty of Violating Anti-Trust Law
District Judge Amit Mehta ruled that Google is a “monopolist, and has used its dominance to squash competition and stifle innovation.
U.S. The U.S. DOJ began its antitrust case against the tech giant back in 2020 which was heard starting September 2023 with judge Amit Mehta presiding. The list of incriminating evidence that has been uncovered is extensive. As someone who has followed this case closely, what is more staggering to see the level of duplicity with advertisers and lack of remorse or even concern for all that they have committed from the Google camp. With all that has been seen and heard it is inconceivable that extensive remedies and a break-up of Alphabet is in their future.
Here are a few of the outlets reporting on this:
Google Found Guilty of Illegal Monopoly on Search – Techopedia
Lawmakers hail DOJ antitrust lawsuit against Google as long overdue – FOXNews
Google has an illegal monopoly on search, US judge finds – Reuters
Google illegally maintains monopoly over internet search, judge rules – APNews
If you are interested in the details, the DOJ vs Google LLC case files are available on the Justice.gov website.
I would love to see Google get back to its roots of providing cutting edge organic, natural search results that searchers expect. That is what made them so great. Since that is unlikely to happen from Google, we may see some balance in upcoming challengers with Search GPT or if Elon Musk makes good on the rumor of starting a unbiased search engine. The one thing that is sure, although we will click through paid ads, searchers still desire natural search results. If they can no longer trust Google, the time is right for a change in power.