Google has violated U.S. antitrust law with its search business, a federal judge ruled Monday, handing the tech giant a staggering court defeat with the potential to reshape how millions of Americans get information online and to upend decades of dominance.
“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,” U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta Mehta wrote in Monday’s opinion. “It has violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act.”
The decision by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia is a stunning rebuke of Google’s oldest and most important business. The company has spent tens of billions of dollars on exclusive contracts to secure a dominant position as the world’s default search provider on smartphones and web browsers.
Today the Department of Justice (DOJ) ruled against Google in its historic lawsuit, finding that Google is in violation of antitrust laws for its anticompetitive practices in search and advertising, including against news media companies. This monumental lawsuit is based on years of investigation and claims against the dominant monopoly. Alleging instances of “tying” its products, Google’s ad exchange and ad server, has a detriment to those who produce the content on what was once a free and open internet.
“We are incredibly pleased with the outcome today and applaud the Department of Justice for holding this dominant monopoly accountable for anticompetitive behavior in the digital advertising market, which has harmed countless businesses, including publishers of quality journalism,” said News/Media Alliance President and CEO Danielle Coffey. “For years, Google has exerted its dominance, profiting off of the hard work and tremendous investments of publishers, while journalism struggles to survive — all during a time when people need reliable news and information more than ever. This landmark decision finally recognizes that this is unacceptable and unlawful, that Google must be held accountable, and competition must be restored to the marketplace.”
For many years, the News/Media Alliance has sounded the alarm on this issue through testimony and written filings, including its white paper, “How Google Abuses Its Position as a Market Dominant Platform to Strong-Arm News Publishers and Hurt Journalism,” which it submitted to the DOJ for their investigation and which substantiates Google’s dominance in the marketplace, including member news publisher accounts of anticompetitive practices. Google’s take from publishers is up to 70 percent of every advertising dollar received. This has a significant impact on what news and magazine publishers receive for their content.
America’s Newspapers, the leading association of news publishers in the United States, applauds the recent verdict finding Google in violation of antitrust laws. This landmark decision marks a crucial step toward fostering fair competition in the digital advertising market and protecting the future of local journalism. This verdict confirms what our members have long experienced: Google’s monopolistic practices have harmed local news organizations, have significantly impacted local newspaper revenues, and have limited local publishers’ innovation in the digital advertising space. By leveraging its dominant position in search and digital advertising, Google has unfairly disadvantaged news publishers, limiting their ability to monetize content and reach audiences effectively.
Antitrust litigation so often fights yesterday's wars. That was the case with Microsoft and the EU when its hegemony was already challenged in the market. And it is the case with Google, which is now challenged by the advent of generative AI search and next agentic AI search and discovery, not to mention new user behavior to use search in, for example, TikTok.
American antitrust law — unlike European — is about consumer protection and it is difficult for me to see how consumers are hurt here. We have long had a choice of search engines (see the once all-powerful Microsoft and see *constant* advertising for DuckDuckGo). I, for one, choose Google simply because it is better.
The business war is in advertising and now AI, no longer in search. The real losers in this decision will likely be Mozilla, I'm sorry to say, as well as Apple and Samsung, which carried Google search not because of Google's market pressure but because Google paid through negotiation for the privilege of serving their users in a deal of obvious mutual benefit.
It is hard for me to see what remedies the judge could imagine that would make any difference.
Jeff Jarvis is the Tow Professor of Journalism Innovation Emeritus at CUNY’s Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism. He is the author of six books, including "The Gutenberg Parenthesis," "Magazine" and the upcoming "The Web We Weave." He cohosts the podcasts "This Week in Google" and "AI Inside."
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