A US judge has ruled that certain practices by Google in the online search market were anti-competitive because the company had promoted its browser unfairly.

It is a victory for the US Department of Justice and a stumbling block for Google. But it also represents a turning point in the technology industry and sets a precedent for future antitrust cases. As reported BBCThe proceedings were originally initiated by the Department of Justice in 2020 and are intended to strengthen competition in the innovative sectors of the U.S. economy.

Judge Amit Mehta’s 277-page opinion said Google paid billions to secure its position as the default search engine on smartphones and browsers. “Google is a monopolist and has acted like one to maintain its monopoly,” the judge wrote.

At this point, it is difficult to estimate the impact of this ruling, but it is possible that it will lead to significant changes for Alphabet, Google’s parent company, given the fines. Of course, the court will rule on these matters, but the company could be forced to make significant changes if the penalty turns out to be significant.

The company plans to appeal the ruling, claiming that its success is due to providing better search engines to the public. Nevertheless, US Attorney General Garland called the ruling “a historic victory for the American people” and stated that no company should be above the law.

This decision is significant because it affects the very nature of Google’s business, its search engine and the advertising associated with it. More broadly, the ruling raises questions about the relationship between market dominance and fair competition in a world increasingly influenced by digital technologies. This decision is no exception in the technology industry. Federal antitrust authorities have filed lawsuits with similar allegations against other major market players such as Meta, Amazon and Apple.

The 10-week trial in Washington, DC, finally exposed Google’s business model. According to prosecutors, Google spent billions of dollars annually to become the default search engine on various platforms, including contracts with Apple, Samsung and Mozilla.

According to the US government, Google invests over $10 billion annually for this privilege. This strategy not only ensures Google’s access to user data, but also makes it more difficult for other companies to compete effectively, prosecutors argued.

Justice Department attorney Kenneth Dintzer said, “The best evidence of how important defaults are is Google’s checkbook.” Google’s search engine generates the majority of the company’s revenue by placing advertisements on its results pages. Google’s lawyers believe their search engine is popular with users because of its quality and constant improvements.

John Schmidtlein, representing Google’s interests, noted that Google “wins because it’s better.” Google’s competition comes from Microsoft’s popular general search engine, Bing, as well as specialized websites and applications for certain types of searches, such as selecting and ordering restaurants or flights.

But in his ruling, Judge Mehta stressed that the key advantage was that it was “extremely valuable real estate” that would allow the company to outperform its competitors in terms of quality. The judge said that even if a new search engine company were to deliver search results of the same quality, it would have no chance unless it invested billions of dollars in securing default positions.

In this sense, Google is facing another antitrust case concerning its advertising technology, which is expected to be heard in September. Moreover, the company has already been hit with heavy fines in similar monopoly cases in Europe, so the decision is crucial in the ongoing conflict over market power in the digital economy.

While we don’t yet know the details of the penalties or changes coming to Google, it’s obvious that the decision could reshape the world of digital advertising and online search in the years to come.

See also: Alphabet beats Q2 revenue and earnings expectations thanks to robust ad demand

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Keywords: Cloud, Google, Google Cloud