Google has lost an important competition case in the USA. It concerns the business that allows Google’s search engine to be set as the default in web browsers. A judge in the capital Washington ruled on Monday that the Internet giant has a monopoly – and has sealed it off from competitors. There was initially no reaction from Google. The US Department of Justice and dozens of US states have filed suit against Google.
The US government argued that Google had “built a wall around its search engine monopoly” with this practice. For example, Apple received billions from Google for setting the company’s search engine as the default in the Safari browser on the iPhone. Users can select a different search engine at any time, but many stick with the default setting. Google countered in the case, but users turned to Google because they were satisfied with the quality of the search results.
The judge found that Google paid approximately $26.3 billion in 2021 to ensure that its search was used by default on smartphones and browsers and to maintain its dominant market share.
“The court concludes that Google is a monopolist and has acted as such to maintain its monopoly,” said District Judge Amit Mehta. The ruling paves the way for a second trial addressing possible restrictions.
This could include asking the Alphabet subsidiary to stop paying smartphone manufacturers billions of dollars each year to set Google as the default search engine on new phones.
The lawsuit was filed under Donald Trump as president. The administration of Trump’s successor Joe Biden continued the proceedings.
