The ruling paves the way for a second trial to determine potential fixes, possibly including a breakup of Alphabet, that would change the landscape of the online advertising world that Google has dominated for years.
It is also a green light to aggressive U.S. antitrust enforcers prosecuting Big Tech, which faces criticism from across the political spectrum.
“The court reaches the following conclusion: Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly,” District Judge Amit Mehta wrote. The search engine giant controls about 90% of the online search market, and 95% on smartphones.
The “remedy” phase could be lengthy, followed by potential appeals to the D.C. Circuit and U.S. Supreme Court. The legal wrangling could play out into next year, or even 2026.
Shares of Google parent Alphabet fell 4.3% on Monday as part of a broad tech share decline. Google advertising was 77% of Alphabet’s total sales in 2023.
Alphabet said it plans to appeal Judge Mehta’s ruling. “This decision recognizes that Google offers the best search engine, but concludes that we shouldn’t be allowed to make it easily available,” Google said in a statement.
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland called the ruling “a historic win for the American people,” adding that “no company — no matter how large or influential — is above the law.”
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