A court ruling found that Google, the search engine giant, has violated antitrust laws by building a “moat” around it’s existing monopoly over search which could have monumental impacts on the digital advertising market, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Per the report, a judge sided with the government in a landmark antitrust case over allegations that competitors were sidelined and customers got a lower-quality experience on the internet due to Google’s dominance (really a long-standing monopoly) within the search industry, referencing exclusive deals with other companies, such as Apple and Samsung, that would have Google as the default search engine on their phones and on their browsers.
“Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly” U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta wrote.
This marks the first victory for the government in an antitrust case against a tech giant since their lawsuit against Microsoft over two decades ago. The government has asserted that Google protected its search monopoly through exclusionary agreements and also “engaged in anticompetitive conduct to lock up distribution channels and block rivals.”
The court found that those deals had “anticompetitive effects in the general search services market.”
“For more than a decade, the challenged distribution agreements have given Google access to scale that its rivals cannot match,” the order stated.
Now, the court will take the next few months to decide on structural relief which could potentially mean divestitures or changes to the way the company is allowed to run its business.
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