Washington. Google is guilty of anti-competitive practices, including through contracts requiring its search engine to be used as the default on electronic devices, a Washington judge ruled Monday.
According to documents, District Judge Amit Mehta said that “after carefully reviewing the testimony and evidence, the court has reached this conclusion: Google is a monopoly and is acting in ways that allow it to maintain that monopoly.”
A new hearing will take place to determine the amount of the fine imposed on the company.
The Mountain View, California-based company has been accused of spending up to $26 billion last year alone to ensure that its search engine was the default on some smartphones and web browsers. Most of that sum went to Apple.
“The distribution agreements signed by Google … prevent its rivals from competing” with the Californian firm, the judge justified in his decision.
Already hit by the fall in financial markets around the world on Monday, the share price of Alphabet, the parent company of Google, extended its losses and ended the day with a drop of 4.61 percent at the close of Wall Street, at 160.64 dollars.
In a statement, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland described the decision as “a historic victory for the American people.”
“No company is above the law, and the Department of Justice will continue to enforce our laws against anti-competitive practices,” he added.
A US judge has ruled that Google spends billions of dollars a year on an illegal monopoly on online search, leading to its dominance of hugely profitable online advertising. Infographic Graphic News
In a statement by its president of global affairs, Kent Walker, Alphabet said the decision “recognizes that Google offers the best search engine.” “But concludes that we should not be allowed to make it readily available,” and “under these conditions we will appeal,” he added.
Dominant
The Justice Department believes that Google’s practices violate competition law and that the contracts are illegal, since the search engine is dominant in the market.
For competition authorities, the reference market is that of general Internet searches. Google holds 80 percent of this market in the United States.
According to the Statcounter website, Google’s search engine accounted for more than 90 percent of the global market and even more than 95 percent of searches made on smartphones at the beginning of July.
The search engine is an important part of the group’s business model, accounting for more than $175 billion in advertising revenue in 2023, out of total sales of $307 billion.
But it also serves as a gateway to Google’s partner services and highlights videos from its YouTube platform, which account for another $62 billion in advertising revenue.
It is the first time that US competition authorities have taken a major technology company to court since Microsoft was the subject of a lawsuit more than 20 years ago.
That case against Microsoft and the dominance of the Windows operating system helped legally define how a technology platform illegally abuses its monopoly to punish its rivals.
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– 2024-08-08 12:06:04
