Google is now 0-2 in antitrust lawsuits. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta ruled Monday that Google illegally maintained its dominant position in search by using anticompetitive agreements to prevent rivals from gaining popularity.
The ruling follows a weeks-long trial in Mehta’s Washington, D.C., courtroom last year in which the U.S. Justice Department accused Google of becoming the world’s most widely used search engine by paying partners like Apple and Samsung to promote it on their devices and software. Google attributed its success to providing a superior service and argued that it faced significant competition from companies like Microsoft and others.
Metha sided with Google on some issues but rejected its overall argument that the company had no illegal monopoly at all. Last year, a federal jury in San Francisco found the Google Play app store to be an illegal monopoly.
How Google will have to adjust its business in lithe of the rulings in San Francisco and Washington has yet to be determined. Mehta will hold a separate trial to determine remedies for search, and the judge is considering proposed penalties in Play’s lawsuit. Still, some of the changes Google has made in response to antitrust scrutiny in recent years have been costly.
Google and the Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment sent Monday.
The case before Mehta had its roots in the increased oversight of the tech industry under then-President Donald Trump. The Justice Department sued Google in 2020, before Trump left office, and that lawsuit became the first of several against massive tech companies to go to court.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.